The (Mis)Adventures of Elias Wren (and Co)
by Parthendox
Summary: I didn't know where I was, I didn't know who I was, and I didn't know about this crappy old man who gave out 'fists of love' and said he was taking me somewhere "fun." All I had to go off on was my name, a dinky yellow sunflower, and a strong and irritatingly persistent sense of déjà vu.-In which another brother joins the ASL trio and they decide that it's better to stick together.
1. Beware the Fist

**Prologue/Chapter 1: The Sunflower Field**

When I died, I was sure that was it. Sure, I'd been more than a bit disappointed that my life had been cut short rather abruptly– by a _stupid_ mistake, if you can believe it– but I accepted it. It was how it was. Everyone dies eventually; I just happened to cross the border a little sooner than expected.

Mind you, I've never been the religious type. So when I opened my eyes to find myself in a vibrantly yellow sunflower field and a clear blue sky above me, you could say that I was a little surprised.

It definitely felt real. There was rich, brown dirt under my toes and a warm breeze tickled my face as it whispered by. The sunflowers whistled softly, ruffled by that same breeze, and it all smelled of light and warmth. Ironically enough, I felt more alive here than I ever did while I was alive, when I was entrapped by the chaotic concrete jungle that we humans call a city.

I'd been there a few hours, I think, but I couldn't really be sure since the sun hadn't moved an inch from its spot high in the center of the sky. I was just thinking to myself that I honestly wouldn't have minded spending eternity in this place (except maybe with a library) when there was the sudden crackling of static from all around— the type that you hear when you're at school and the loudspeakers come on to make an announcement.

I jumped as a high-pitched voice with an English accent seemingly spoke from behind me. "Hello~!"

"What–?!" Whipping around, I saw nothing but the sunflowers.

"Oh, silly, don't worry about trying to find me. Because you won't. So just listen~!"

"But–!" I start. I didn't know about this guy, but my mom taught me not to listen to random sketchy-sounding, disembodied voices in sunflower fields. Then I remembered I was supposed to be dead. I figured that arguing could probably wait a moment.

"Aha, good choice, Mr. Wren!" laughed the voice, somehow knowing my name, "Now, listen here; you died, no?"

I paused. Was that a trick question? "Uh… I think so? I mean… I'm pretty sure I did, if you mean the time I, uh— well, y'know."

There was an applause, like the one you hear on comedy T.V. shows. "Yes, yes, I do know! And correct! You _did_ die, and I dare say rather admirably, no?"

I grimaced, "I was just stupid. It wasn't really that–"

The voice interrupted me again, sounding annoyed. I had a feeling if whoever it was had a body, their hands would be on their hips. " _Mr._ Wren, you tackled the _suicide bomber_ who was going to kill at least half your school and managed to keep him from fully arming the bomb until the police arrived. You saved _lives_. The only reason you died was because–"

"Because I made a stupid mistake while playing the hero, yeah, I know," I muttered, looking down. There was a sudden gust of wind that made the sunflowers roll like the waves of a golden ocean, and in the horizon I swear I could see black clouds approaching at an alarming pace. I shivered.

"No. It was because you believed it was safe until the accomplice who helped the bomber get into the school stabbed you in the back. Or," it added with a snort, "Rather, the neck."

"Listen, I knew them both!" I snapped, "I knew the stuff they got up to— I should've realized that if they did something like what they did, they would do it together! But I thought he was the only one, didn't watch my own back, and I got _stabbed_ for it. So yes, a _stupid mistake_."

"Aw, shut up already, will you?" said the voice, "You didn't realize, their good old mates didn't realize, no one realized! Don't beat yourself up over it." There was a short pause, then: "If you think it was so stupid, why not try again?" asked the voice as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

I frowned as the wind picked up more than before. Bits of dirt were beginning to be picked up, and petals were plucked from the sunflowers. "What do you mean, try again? I'm dead, if you haven't realized. Also, is this storm normal?"

"Of course not," said the voice, "You're a cheeky one, aren't you? That'll certainly be fun… And about that… You do know there's such things as second chances, don't you?"

"Not at _life_! And what the hell do you mean, 'that'll be fun'?!" The gale was getting progressively stronger and faster, and the storm clouds, which had moments before been on the horizon, were nearly overhead.

"Oh, you'll see soon enough. And second chances don't usually happen, you're right, but… ah… let's just say you won the lottery of life this time around. Otherworldly beings have to have _some_ sort of entertainment, you know, it gets dreadfully bland otherwise. So… Pure luck, Mr. Wren. What good fortune!"

"But–!" My words were torn away by the wind, and my went wide as I watched sunflowers be ripped from their roots and whirl into the now dark grey sky.

"Oh, and another thing." Despite the chaos, I could hear the voice clearly. "It wouldn't be… fun… if we just let people back into life just like that, you get me?" The voice seemed to stifle a snicker, "No, we like to… ah… _mess_ with them a bit."

What the hell did that mean? And what was _we_?

"For example, you, well, we can't just send you back to the world you were living in, you get me? That would end in quite some confusion and it always turns out happy in the end. Boring, am I right? Chaos, for a time, is much more entertaining. Also, it wouldn't be exactly the easiest thing to, ah, start over, per say, at the age you are now. It's not easiest to blend in."

"What the hell!" my protest was dragged away by the wind. There was no sound other than that and the voice by now, but I could feel and see it; the ground around me was beginning to crumble away, falling into an unseen abyss somewhere far, far down below. I had no idea what to do other than keep listening to the voice.

"I think an age re-adjustment of, say, nine years will suffice?" the voice wondered to itself as if creating a grocery list, "Oh, and I have no doubt that you'll recognize the world you're about to be thrown into– that is, if you are to retain your memories." There was a dramatic sigh, "Unfortunately, the Fall can have a catastrophic impact on the mind. You'll probably forget most of everything, though I have no doubt you'll get a particularly annoying— but most likely useful— recurring sense of déjà vu. Your memory will recover, but with some effort, I'm afraid. How you do it, I haven't the slightest idea, but that's the fun!" I could almost hear the smirk the voice's next words. "Don't worry, I'll take the liberty of sewing your name on your clothing or something so you don't forget that, at least."

I was left speechless. But you know, what could I have said? I sure as hell had no clue— at least, not until the crumbling ground began deteriorating faster and I could feel myself begin to drop with it. Then came the ever-intelligent "AHHHHHH!" response. The voice laughed once more. I would probably hear that thing in my nightmares for the rest of my unnatural life.

"Have fun, Mr. Wren, and don't die too soon!"

The last thing I knew, as I spiralled down and down into oblivion, was a blinding brightness, wind whistling in my ears, and finally, darkness.

* * *

Chapter 1: Beware the Fist

Location: Sabaody Archipelago

A hefty older man with greying hair and a large, curved scar around his left eye sat behind a large desk, muttering under his breath as he sorted through a monstrous– and entirely unorganized– pile of papers.

"Stupid paperwork... Should be out going after pirates, but noooo... I'm stuck here in the office..."

He reached out and snatched a rice cracker from the box teetering dangerously at the corner of his desk, and the cracker made a satisfying 'crunch' as he took an angry chomp.

"No, he says, you've got to do more paperwork..." He glared half-heartedly out the window, where he could see the all-too-familiar tree-sap bubbles floating up from the ground. "You're stationed in Sabaody for a while, he says..."

The man continued muttering under his breath as he finally finished organizing the stack and began the tedious task of signing official documents and handwriting orders. It was at times like these when the man could see at least one- _but only one!-_ solid argument in favor of his grandson's aspiration.

Damned paperwork.

He nearly jumped from his skin when the den-den mushi rang.

" _Purupurupurupuru. Purupurupurupuru._ "

The man grunted as he reached for the receiver, hoping silently that it wasn't a call from that dang Sengoku that more paperwork was being sent his way.

"Yes, hello, this is Garp." Garp answered, sniffing loudly and crunching on another rice cracker.

There was a long sigh from the other end. _"Garp."_ There was a pause, and Garp could _feel_ the judgement seeping from it, but he elected to ignore it. _"How many times have I told you that when you answer the phone you need to do it according to protocol? Do it again. Correctly."_

"Ka-cha." The den-den mushi went back to sleep as the other side hung up. Moments later, it was ringing again, and he picked up the receiver.

Garp scratched his chin. "Really, Sengoku?"

There was silence.

"Bah, fine." He cleared his throat. "This is Vice-Admiral Monkey D. Garp. I enjoy eating rice crackers and punching idiots. I also like hunting pirates."

" _Garp."_

"I customized it."

" _Garp."_

"Sengoku."

" _Goddamn it, Garp. Never mind that for now._ "

Garp grinned to himself and grabbed another rice cracker, munching on it victoriously.

Sengoku continued. _"I called you for a different reason. As you already know, Sabaody has always been crawling with pirates, but there's been an increase these past twelve years ever since that damned Roger set off the 'pirate age.' It's only been getting worse, so nowadays the marines have their hands full. Especially the ones there- except you."_

That's right; he was supposed to be banned from fieldwork for the next week because he had 'broken too many walls and needed to 're-evaluate' his life choices.' Garp crossed his arms. "So, what, you want me to take out some pirate?"

 _"No, not exactly. Well, perhaps. We're not quite sure yet what it is, since the crater is still billowing up dust and the other marines haven't been able to reach it."_

"What?"

 _"I only know this because I was contacted directly– heaven knows why."_ Sengoku frowned. _"But from the reports, something landed in the Sabaody Amusement Park around an hour ago right beneath the Ferris wheel. The operator didn't sound too happy about it."_

"So you want me to check it out."

 _"You're the only one I know of that's available."_

Garp shrugged, grinning. "Alright. It seems interesting enough. Though it's probably some poor bastard that got beaten and chucked that way."

Sengoku hummed in agreement."Probably. Although you never know out there; it's the final island before the New World, after all."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, I'll be careful." He waved a hand dismissively.

"Good luck. Report back once it's over. My curiosity is getting the better of me, I'm afraid."

"Doesn't it always?" Garp snickered.

"For the better or for the worse…"

The vice-admiral rolled his eyes. He didn't need Sengoku getting all mystical and shit when he finally had something interesting to do, so he just hung up. He then rose from his seat, cracking his knuckles. "Heh. Let's go see what this thing really is."

The walk to the amusement park was interesting in itself. Pirates, of course, had gotten word that 'Garp the Fist' was walking around as soon as he stepped foot outside, and didn't hesitate to scatter and hide like the cowards they were, or, as Garp liked to put it, either had balls of seastone (since steel was much too soft in this matter) or were complete numbskulls that wished for death. Meaning, they had boldly (or idiotically) stood in his way, challenging Garp to a fight, either hoping to raise their bounty and therefore infamy by defeating them, or were just hoping to test their skills.

It began happening less so after they spotted the ever-growing mass of chained pirates within the cage his trainee was dragging along behind him. (Good training).

After a pit stop by the local jail, Garp finally reached the amusement park, where there was a large crowd and a certain very sweaty Ferris Wheel operator, who was wringing his hands and trying his best to quell the rambunctious gathering of people. At the sight of Garp approaching, the man threw up his hands and hurried over.

"Garp the Fist, sir! It's an honor, it's an honor!"

Garp grinned. "Ah, thanks. So, what happened?"

The man paled. "Oh, it was crazy, sir, crazy, even for this place! I was just running the wheel as usual when suddenly there's this light–" he made an odd exploding motion with his arms,"Brighter than the Sun, you know, and then there's this 'BOOM!'" The man screamed, (Garp had to disguise a cringe as a cough), "And then there's a crater next to the wheel and it's raining dirt and sunflowers! Sunflowers!"

Garp hummed to himself. "Sunflowers? That's weird."

"You know it, sir!"

"Okay, move aside, I'll take care of this," He held out his hand to his trainee– a good young fellow of twenty-two who went by the name Dart. The blond-haired man gave a curt nod and handed him his megaphone. Damn he had that brat trained well.

"Good," Garp said simply before turning back to the crowd, clearing his throat, "LADIES AND MEN, STEP ASIDE; I REALIZE A SMOKING CRATER IS SERIOUSLY COOL BUT ALL OF YOU BASTARDS NEED TO MOVE."

It worked like a charm (for the most part) and in a few moments the area was cleared, leaving the smoking crater in clear view. The operator had been right about the dirt and the sunflowers; the oddly rich-looking earth was everywhere, and there were countless sunflowers- probably hundreds- strewn about, some trampled by the crowd. The hole itself wasn't the largest Garp had seen. It looked only about fifteen to seventeen feet in diameter.

"Hmm." Garp cracked his knuckles, then his neck, and after that, his toes. Because why not? And if anything, it seemed to impress– if not terrify– the younger marine and the operator, who had stayed behind. "Alright, time to see this punk," he smirked to himself, making his way into the crater.

The dust and the dirt in the air was still fairly thick, and Garp struggled to see even two feet in front of him, but thankfully had his haki to compensate. Ever since he'd arrived to the park and the people cleared out, he could sense that whoever had the misfortune to land here was still alive– but that was about as much as he could tell.

Garp liked to think of himself as "middle aged," but the truth was, well, he was _old_. Not old enough to keel over and die, of course, but old enough to have had experienced enough that he knew a bit about this and that. When this sort of thing happened, when he didn't know shit, it made him feel like a rookie again. He didn't like that.

To put it simply, Garp was baffled. Usually, with a regular person, when he observed their 'voice' he would at least be able to tell their sex, general age and at times, such as in battle, a general idea of what they were about to do a split second before they did it. But for this person…

Everyone had their own tone of 'voice.' Their own sound; some were quiet, some loud, some harsh, some soft. They were auras screaming 'I AM ME!'

He had never really thought about it before until now, but even with those distinctions between them, those 'voices' were pretty damn similar. There were those, of course, that stood apart from the rest for inexplicable reasons, but those were really still similar enough to be able to blend with other's 'voices' in a large group of people, rendering anyone but the most skilled observation users- or the ones who knew them best- be able to pick them out.

He was pretty sure that someone barely _beginning_ in haki would be able to find this person in a goddamn _hurricane_ of people.

It was odd; in all the decades that Garp had sailed the seas, he had never encountered someone with an accent to their 'voice,' such as one one could obtain in their speaking one by simply having grown up differently or in a different country. In fact, it was so heavily accented that it was damn near _impossible_ to decipher- meaning Garp couldn't even get a reading of this person's basic information.

That was when Garp, so lost in his speculations, (surprisingly), stepped on said person.

"Ah, my bad," he said, bringing his foot back up from the person's face– a kid, by the look of it. Garp frowned and peered more closely, eyes narrowing when he noticed that the boy seemed to be just a year or two older than Luffy, who had just turned seven a few months previously. The boy had creamy blond hair and was wearing an aviator's jacket, (Garp snorted at that– it was suitable for someone who had apparently been flying through the sky), shorts, and… a red name-tag stuck to his chest?

' **Hello! My name is:** _**ELIAS WREN**_ ,' read the sticker in bold lettering. Garp's eyebrows rose. The situation was getting more intriguing by the moment.

"Vice Admiral Garp, sir!" called Dart from outside the crater. "Are you alright?"

Garp snorted. "You're one hundred years too young to be asking me that question!" He shouted back, nonetheless grabbing the kid and slinging him over his shoulder. It wouldn't do good to worry his charge more than he had to. Plus, he had an odd, nagging, feeling it was best to get the kid- Wren, apparently- away as quickly as possible, and Garp wasn't one to ignore his gut, whether it was about danger or rice crackers. Or doughnuts. Possibly both.

When he emerged, Dart and the operator's eyes bugged as they caught sight of the child. "A KID?!"

"Bwahahahaha! Don't be so surprised. You should have already seen weirder, being here." Actually, Garp himself hadn't, but he was counting on his status that they wouldn't ask. Plus, they- or at least the operator, (what was his name again? Whatever, it didn't matter.)- didn't know there was more to it than it seemed. Last island before the New World or no, it was still Paradise.

The operator's head dropped. "Unfortunately, sir."

"Sure, sir…" said Dart, scratching the back of his head.

Garp nodded as he walked by them, Dart immediately falling into step a little ways behind as they headed back to the base. They moved in moderate silence for a few minutes until Dart spoke up and voiced the question Garp had practically felt eating at the trainee since their arrival at the crater.

"Sir… That boy's 'voice'…" He trailed off.

Garp shot the kid a glance. "It's weird, I know. I think referring to it as an 'accent' would be the best way to go right now."

"But–"

"You've never seen something like it before? Neither have I, bwahahahaha!"

Dart made a strangled noise. "What do you mea–"

"Oh, but don't tell anyone I said that, okay?" Garp interrupted, "Sengoku will most likely want to keep this a secret."

Dart paled, probably due to the fact that Garp had said something like that so easily, and that he now knew something that the Fleet Admiral wouldn't want getting out. Unheard by Dart, Garp snickered to himself.

Minutes later, they arrived back at the base, and Garp made no stops until he reached his office again. He then lugged the boy off his shoulder and pushed him at Dart, who took him off his hands with an apprehensive look. He then wasted no time in reaching for the den den mushi, knowing that by now Sengoku was probably getting fairly antsy.

As expected, the other side picked up halfway into the first ring. Sengoku's voice filtered through, sounding irritated. _"Took you long enough. Report?"_

Garp began picking his nose, much to Dart's disgust. "You're too damn curious. And it wasn't my fault a bunch of idiots decided to try and challenge me."

 _"Not my problem. And I can_ tell _you're picking your nose. Stop it. Report?"_

Shoving his finger deeper, as he had a reputation to keep up (and he still had yet to reach that really annoying booger he could feel), Garp frowned- though to anyone else, it may have looked like a pout. "You know they attack me every time I go out. It wasn't my fault."

The den den mushi's eye twitched. _"Fine! It wasn't your fault. Report?!"_

"Uh-huh. It was a kid."

 _"And?"_

"His name's Elias Wren, apparently."

 _"What, he's conscious?"_

"No, his name tag said."

 _"_ Damn _it Garp, just tell it all to me!"_

Garp shrugged and finally managed to pull the annoying booger out of his nose. He flicked it away, and the slimy, green nugget managed to land right on Dart's face, who began to scream silently, caught between trying not to interrupt an important conversation and having a mucus blob from a vice admiral land on his bare skin. Garp gave him a blank look for a second before responding to Sengoku.

"His 'voice' is really weird…" Garp explained the details, leaving the other marine silent on the other end. After Sengoku still hadn't responded in a few moments, he prompted, "Well? What do you think?"

 _"I think…"_ Sengoku said carefully, " _You need to find a place for that boy to stay. Away from Sabaody, away from the Grand Line; somewhere where it's hardly likely he will encounter anyone that can use color of observation."_

"Is it that serious?"

 _"Deadly."_

"Enlighten me, then."

There was a long silence, and finally a sigh at the other end. _"I've heard only stories, of course, rumors— but they're from long ago, so long that they're only just ancient legends. It's nothing we can worry about, now, though— it's best to get a move on, Garp; you never know who could end up on that island. And you know how much I hate it when kids get hurt."_

Garp shot the boy in Dart's arms a look, then frowned. "I guess it is that serious. Fine. We're going to talk when I get back, though, Sengoku. I need more than that. I'll be risking a lot."

 _"I know."_

"I have a place where I can take him, but I'm gonna need at least a month's leave, and that'll be cutting it close," Garp continued, "I know I just got back a few months ago, but…"

 _"Just do it, Garp. I'll take the fall; don't worry about anything else for now."_

"Understood," he replied, and he hung up, the den den mushi going back to sleep.

Exhaling heavily, he stood up and cracked his back, wondering at his luck. The son of Gol D. Roger, the son of Dragon the Revolutionary, and now an odd kid with a voice that could get him killed, if Sengoku's extreme caution was anything to go by. Who would have known?

Well, if there was one thing for certain, Garp thought to himself, grinning, it was that Dadan was going to have her hands quite full from now on.

* * *

 **EDIT: This was edited August of 2017. A little has been changed, mainly grammar and some wording. Thank you for reading!**

 **A/N: Hello, readers! Thank you for making it this far, I honestly truly appreciate it. So- new story! I have quite a bit in mind for this one. Though I haven't absolutely made a decision on which way this story will go, one thing is for certain: it will not be a re-write of what happens in canon! Although those type of stories can be enjoyable, it's really not my style and I'd rather not go through the entire regular story again (even though it's kick-ass). Though there will be some things that happened in canon that absolutely must happen, (such as the recruitment of straw hats), this story will take its own twists and turns. I will keep everyone as in character as possible.**

 **Also- I love to hear from you guys! If you ever have any ideas, feel free to PM me and share! (I'd rather not have anyone say any ideas in the reviews as to keep things a surprise). And if you don't have any ideas, feel free to leave a review! Please tell if you spotted any grammatical errors (as I currently don't have a beta) or just want to comment on something, like what you think so far or what you think may happen next!**

 **Anyway, thank you very much, and I'll post the next chapter ASAP!**


	2. I Meet Some Fellow Victims

I groaned as consciousness graced my mind once again. My entire body ached down to my pinkie toe.

"Damn…" I moaned without opening my eyes, "Did I get into a fight or something?"

"Aren't you a little too young to be fighting?" An unfamiliar voice asked.

A little too young? Wasn't I… like seventeen or something? Wait, how old was I? And come to think of it…

"Who the hell are you?!" My eyes shot open and I scrambled backwards, my back hitting the headboard of the bed I currently resided in. There was a young guy standing in the center of the small room with blond hair and a bemused expression. What the heck was a random guy doing in my room?!

He gave me an odd look. "I'm Dart," he said matter-of-factly.

Oh, that _definitely_ cleared everything up.

I pointed a finger at him, which he looked at unconcernedly. "Okay, let me rephrase that question. Who are you, and what the hell are you doing in my _room?!_ " I gestured wildly in all directions.

Dart only nodded, and whipped a notebook out of who-knows-where, then began to jot things down in quick, precise writing. "Your room?" he asked, not looking up, "I don't believe this is your room. To answer your question: I'm a marine. And I'm here because I'm vice admiral Garp-san's apprentice and this is his ship. I was checking on you."

Not my room? A marine? I looked around, and sure enough everything around was unfamiliar. I tried recalling what my room did look like, but much to my concern, I came up with nothing.

And about the marines… Something tickled at my memory, and my eyes narrowed. I had heard about them somewhere, and this person named Garp. The name was oddly familiar, but I just couldn't remember…! I picked at my brain, but came up with nothing but blanks; in fact, the more I thought, the more empty space appeared. It suddenly occurred to me that I couldn't even recall my own name. The corners of my mouth turned downward, and I stared at my hands. They seemed a bit small— or at least smaller than I think I was accustomed to.

I veered off of that train of thought quickly. It was probably better to address the immediate situation at hand— meaning, the weird guy who I didn't recognize that was like four feet away.

"...Where am I, exactly?" I asked, looking back at Dart carefully.

The blond-haired man opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted due to the wall beside the door suddenly exploding into a mess of splinters.

Dart paled.

An older man stepped through the hole, bearing a wide and slightly unsettling grin that reminded me of a wolf.

Maybe it was the coat he wore that said "vice admiral" or Dart's exclamation of "Garp-san!" but something told me that this was the vice admiral Garp.

"Dart!" bellowed the man, "Why didn't you come tell me the brat woke up?!" The next bit held a bit of a whine, "I've been waiting for four damn days!"

The blood drained from Dart's face even more. It made me worried he would pass out. "He just-"

Garp bonked him on the head, and I winced in sympathy as the man's hands flew up to hold his abused skull. "You're Dart! Live up to your name and be quicker about it!" Dart hastily nodded to the demand with a little too much enthusiasm, and the corners of his eyes teared up as his brain was jostled. I frowned at that; I didn't know Dart very well, but I sure as hell didn't like the way he was being treated.

Garp suddenly turned on me. "And you! You're going to listen to what I have to say!"

My frown deepened, and I crossed my arms. Although I may have not recalled my own name, I realized that whoever I may have been, I hadn't been too keen on following orders, especially from people I didn't respect. This Garp guy certainly didn't make the list- not that there was one at the moment. "No way," I said shortly.

Garp stared at me.

I glared back.

He burst out laughing. "You sound like my grandson!" He chortled before swiftly bopping me on the head and gifting me an egg-sized lump to wince and clutch at. "You're gonna fit in damn well!"

Oh, hell no. I liked neither the sound _nor_ connotations of that. "Where am I, you shit-geezer?! Where's my family?!" It was a safe question; like my name, I didn't remember a family, but I was sure I had one. If I tried really hard, I could feel it— warm feelings, what was maybe a smile, and a ghost of laughter.

Garp shrugged. "Dunno. Somewhere on the Grand Line. I'm not the navigator. And you don't have a family as far as we know; I looked."

I… didn't? That couldn't possibly be true. My jaw worked, and I tried my best not to punch the guy- not that it would do any harm, based on bodily proportions. I was just pissed; pissed at myself, my situation, and especially him, for being no nonchalant about everything. He had no right to be talking to be so… _carelessly_. He was the one who had taken me and lugged me onto his ship as far as I knew. But, finally, I exhaled slowly and plopped back onto the bed. It wouldn't do any good to be angry.

"...Fine." I said, and Garp raised an eyebrow, "Let me ask you another question, then."

Garp held up a hand. "You can ask me, but you need to agree to answer mine, after." I nodded, and he dragged over a chair from the wooden desk in the room and sat down in it, crossing his arms. "Go on."

"Okay," I began, "Where'd you find me? Also, where are you taking me? And why?"

The man's brows crinkled in the center. "I found you… On an island called Sabaody Archipelago. You were unconscious in a crater, heck if I know why. And I'm taking you to Goa Kingdom where my two grandsons live. You're gonna stay with them from now on. As to why… I can't say." Then a glint of mischief came alive in his dark eyes. "But between you and me, let's just say your voice is weird."

Immediately becoming self-conscious, I touched at my throat. What did he mean by that? I was pretty sure I had a perfectly normal voice, thank you very much. It may not have been the best for singing, (something… told me it _really_ wasn't), but it couldn't be that terrible. Unless… he wasn't talking about my regular voice? But that couldn't be it.

Garp's eyes had followed my hand, and he looked as if he'd remembered something. "Oh, yeah; where'd you get that?" he pointed at my neck.

"Get what?"

" _That_. You know what I mean."

" _No_ , I don't ' _know what you mean._ '"

Huffing, Garp grabbed the only (rather large) mirror in the room off the wall and shoved it in front of me.

"What…?" My eyes widened as I saw myself for the first time.

I looked to be around eight or nine years old. Wide, grey eyes stared back from my reflection, accompanied by wild and wavy creamy blond locks, and the occasional freckle dotted the visible portions of pale skin. Finally, my eyes came to a rest on my neck.

As I caught sight of what the man had been talking about, I couldn't help that my mouth fell open.

"How am I _alive?_ " I breathed, unable to tear my eyes away from the long, jagged scar that curved nearly around my whole neck, save for a few inches in the front. It looked like the skin had been carefully stitched back together, and the surrounding area was an angry rose color— not of infection, but as if the scab had fallen off barely moments ago, leaving a smooth but easily visible mark. It wasn't ugly to look at; it was more fascinating than anything, at least in my opinion. But if I hadn't known better— thanks to the fact that I was very much breathing— I would have thought I'd been nearly decapitated.

"You tell _me_ , brat," Garp said gruffly, putting the mirror back, "I hardly know a thing about you."

I looked away, uncomfortable. "You probably know more than I do."

His eyes narrowed. "Don't tell me..."

"That I lost my memory?...I don't even know my own name."

Garp was silent for the briefest of moments, looking as if he was seriously considering something. Then he shook his head. "It's Wren."

I blinked. "Bless you?"

"What- how was that a sneeze?! It's your name. Elias Wren."

"How-?"

"You- er, you were wearing a nametag when I found you."

That was… not normal. But he obviously didn't know how it had got there, so there was no point in asking him. Or any other questions, for that matter. I didn't know _what_ to ask, and it didn't seem that he did, either. Garp seemed to realize that too, because he got up and looked back at Dart, who had been standing silently in the corner the entire time. "Get this brat some decent food, then give him a run-down on what goes on around here."

Dart saluted. "Yes, sir!"

The man turned back to me. "And you!" He barked, calm demeanor suddenly gone, "I expect you to be up tomorrow morning at five sharp; we may only have three weeks left until we reach Goa, but I'll be damned if I don't train you some in that time! You're a weak little brat right now— I'll bet even a gust of wind could knock you flat!"

The way he said "train" sent a bad shiver down my spine. I also tried my best to not be offended by that last remark. "...And why is that, exactly?"

I didn't like the maniacal glint that appeared in his eyes. "Because you're in my care now, of course," (he either didn't see or completely ignored the pity-filled look that Dart shot me after those words), "And I'll be damned if I don't turn any of my brats into fine marines!" The last bit was roared, in in my opinion, said with maybe a bit too much gusto.

I eyed his uniform, then looked him dead in the eyes. "Yeah, no thanks."

That immediately sent Garp into a frenzy. "YOU SOUND LIKE MY GRANDSONS!" He bellowed, punching me over the head again- and _damn_ it hurt! It _almost_ pushed me over the edge, and made me do whatever he wanted. But apparently I was a stubborn person, whoever I was before, and the situation just further enticed me to do the opposite of what he said. And judging by his words, his grandsons, whoever they were, seemed to share my train of thought.

* * *

The days following were quite the… _adventure,_ if you catch my drift. Every waking hour was spent on my toes, and every sleeping one was spent with one eye open. It seemed that the time of day did nothing to deter attacks, whether it was from the Grand Line weather patterns (or _lack_ thereof), sea kings— _plural_ , pirates, or even Garp himself. Needless to say, I learned quickly to take naps when I could, snatch food whenever possible, and, during the attacks, either fight or tactically retreat; doing neither or choosing the wrong one often got me beaten to an inch of my life, or it so felt.

"Training," Garp insisted every time I brought it up.

We docked a few times at a handful of islands for supplies, but it was only ever for a couple hours at a time. Other than that, we didn't make too many stops. After all, according to Garp, he only had around a month's leave, and that required full steam ahead for him to be able to get to "Goa" and then back to the Grand Line; even then, things would be tight. At one point, after a hell of a lot of sake, Garp let it slip that right now places were a "hassle" to get to, but apparently there was some type of technology that would soon allow easier travel across the "Calm Belt," or so he called it— something about seastone, whatever that was.

"I'll be able to visit you brats more often and train all of you even more!" He said gleefully one day while munching on a rice cracker.

"That's unfortunate," I answered bluntly. I _really_ didn't care what I said to the guy at that point.

Garp had struck me as the type of person with more muscle on his body and less between his skull, but surprisingly, there were a multitude of books on the ship. I was actually kind of excited, but as it turned out— according to Dart, who I happened to mention it to— none of them actually belonged to him; they were all the crew's books. Needless to say, I was not impressed.

Nonetheless, I didn't hesitate to take advantage of the golden opportunity; there were books on everything I could have asked for, and I seized the free time I had to learn more about the world around me. It seemed like a whole lot of reading and new material, but I knew that even with the amount I had read in the time I had was hardly even the _beginning_ of what there was to cover. The books available to me couldn't possibly cover it all. I couldn't even be positive that every book in the entire _world_ held every inch of information there was. I hadn't seen much of it yet, but something told me that the true vastness of this world was unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

Much to my frustration, there was nothing in the books that I could even remotely associate myself with. Sure, I had landed at the so-called Sabaody Archipelago, but… that was about it, other than the couple sunflowers Dart had handed me after the first day I'd come to. Apparently, they and a bunch of others had fallen along with me. It had piqued my interest, at first (since it could have led to some clue about my identity), but after much poking and prodding, the only thing I discovered was that the stupid things didn't wither, no matter what was done to them. They were just really tough flowers, as far as I knew— if they held any hint of who I was, they didn't show it.

I guess they looked okay at my window, though.

* * *

It was on a clear day that we docked on the shore of our destination. The air was tinged with the scent of grass and earth, and the sea rocked gently, not showing any warning of the the approaching chaos. I had heard the call of land a few minutes before they put the gangplank down, so I managed to grab a rucksack and shove some random books and my clothing into it, and I just managed to snatch my sunflowers off the shelf before Garp caught me by the shirt and lugged me off the ship.

We were greeted by an older man and a pretty, dark green-haired lady. "Oh! Who's that cutie pie, Garp-san?" She asked after greeting him.

"Makino! It's been awhile! This is a kid I found: Wren," he said, holding me up like a life-sized doll, which I didn't appreciate all too much. "I'm gonna take him up to Dadan."

"Another one?" The man next to Makino grumbled, "Where do you find them?"

Garp shrugged. "This one fell from the sky," he said matter-of-factly, and when they didn't respond, (which he took as the end to the conversation, but was really them shocked into silence), he moved on, past houses and into the countryside, until we came to the entrance a rather large jungle, at which point I began to struggle.

"C'mon, we're going someplace fun!" Garp insisted as I peered into the dark wood. Vines crept up beefy, looming trees, and the bushes rustled suspiciously; I could have sworn there were eyes somewhere in there leering at me.

" _That's_ fun?" I asked incredulously, "It doesn't look fun. It looks more like _certain death_ to me."

"Pft, what a baby." Garp scoffed.

"What?! I'm nine! I think! Either way, I'm no baby!"

"Right. Only babies are scared of jungles."

"That doesn't make sense! And I'm not scared, I'm being observant and reasonable!"

"Bwahahaha!" Garp laughed as he began lugging me into the wilderness, "Who needs that?"

My eyes glinted. "Decent marines do," I shot back. Hah, _that_ would get him. After all his rattling on about marines and what a good one was— he wouldn't be able to refute _that_.

Garp faulted in his steps. "Damn, you're right! I need to train Luffy and Ace to do that too, then!"

...That backfired. So instead, I tried kicking him in the shin. "Let me go, old man!" He looked as if he hadn't felt anything, whereas my toe throbbed like I had just smashed it against a steel wall.

"Hm, did you say something?"

"No…" I sniffed, clutching my foot, eyes definitely not stinging with tears.

Garp gave me an odd look and continued to drag me to the "fun" place.

Fifteen minutes later, still swinging from the back of my shirt, (Garp probably thought I would run off), I had nearly dozed off when I heard a shrill scream in quite close proximity.

"WHAT THE _HELL_ IS THAT YOU'RE HOLDING, GARP?!" A deep female voice shrieked.

I looked up to see a sturdily-built woman- who had the distinct look of someone _extremely_ offended- standing a few feet in front of us, a scraggly gang of men grouped behind her. A large, rickety shack stood farther off. Though I sure as heck couldn't place why, the whole scene seemed oddly familiar, almost like I'd seen it before. But that was impossible, right?

Garp held me up. "Dadan, this is Wren, a kid I found. Wren, this is Dadan, a mountain bandit. You'll be staying here from now on, so get along."

"What?! Now there's _four_ I've gotta look after?!" Dadan screeched.

"A mountain bandit?!" I twisted to stare at Garp, trying to see if he was serious. Unfortunately, Garp was preoccupied with something Dadan had said.

" _Four?_ Can you count? With this brat here that'll make three." To be honest, I was surprised _he_ could count.

"Wrong!" Dadan snapped, "A blond kid named Sabo appeared here a few days ago, and apparently he's staying here now, too!"

Dadan may not have appreciated it, but Garp on the other hand seemed elated at the news. "So Ace and Luffy have made a friend! Well, that's just another marine that I'll have to shape up, then!" Ouch. Yet another one to suffer at Garp's 'training sessions'. The poor soul.

"Speaking of Ace and Luffy, where are they?" Garp asked.

Dadan shrugged, still eyeing me as if I was a discarded booger or something. "Hell if I know. They should be back soon, though; they always are around this time."

On cue, three kid's voices came into range; two seemed to be arguing, and the other was laughing.

"There they are," Dadan pointed her cigarette behind us, and Garp turned around with me still dangling from his fist. Sure enough, there were two dark haired boys and a blond. One of the dark haired ones seemed to be a couple years younger than the other two, of whom looked my age, or maybe a year older. Together, they were dragging behind them a boar that easily swamped them in size eight times over; obviously, they had taken it down, judging by the bruises on it and the poles in the boys' hands. They must have been pretty strong.

The old geezer let out a bellowing laugh.

Instantly, the two dark haired boys froze and paled enough to be visible from the thirty feet away where Garp and I were. The blond- Sabo, I assumed- stopped with them and looked up.

"Who're they?" I heard him ask loudly, pointing in our direction.

The two shook their heads furiously, and the older one hissed something to the other two. The blond promptly went white as well.

"Run!" The youngest screamed, and the three of them dropped the boar, turned tail, and _booked_ it. Honestly, I couldn't blame them. I would have run too. But alas, I could not, as I was still at the mercy of Garp's fist.

Garp seemed to remember that as well. He looked at me.

I did not like the look he gave me.

"OH NO YOU DON'T, YOU BRATS!" He bellowed, and unhesitatingly lifted me up into the air and pulled his arm back.

"W-wait!" I squawked, waving my arms wildly, "You're not gonna-"

"METEOR FIST!" He threw, and I was launched through the air at a breakneck speed headfirst, in a beeline right towards Sabo and the other two.

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIT~~!" I screamed, cheeks flapping at the impossible velocity. The three turned to glance over their shoulders at my rapidly approaching screeching, and their faces lost any color they had left.

I made accidental eye contact with the freckled one before I crashed into him and and the others, and I swear I saw murder mixing with pity in his eyes. I _assumed_ the murder was for Garp and the pity for me, but I couldn't be sure.

Anyway, I crashed into them, face-first, and we all went down like bowling pins.

"Bwahahaha! You're not getting away that easily! I need to get in one training session before I leave!" Garp yelled, quickly catching up. He proceeded to snatch Sabo up and then the other oldest, who was now sporting an egg-sized lump on his forehead.

"Hey, let go of us you shitty old man!"

"Bwahahaha- you're Sabo, right? If you're gonna be living here now, it's time for your orientation!" Then he looked back at the kid in his other hand, either ignoring or completely oblivious to the fact that the youngest was repeatedly punching him in the leg. Probably the latter. "Oh yeah, Ace, Luffy- Sabo too, I guess-" he snatched up the youngest as well and shoved the three in front of my nose, "This is Wren, a kid I found. He'll be living alongside you brats from now on."

There was enough time for the freckled one- Ace, I supposed- to level me with a glare (maybe the murder _was_ for me), whereas Sabo still looked a bit conflicted about being manhandled, and Luffy looked like the holidays had come early and began chanting the word "friend" enthusiastically. Then Garp proceeded to "train" us.

Let me go ahead and say that that day, I discovered that nothing forms a bond between people more quickly than fighting for your life together. Despite the fact that they were very nearly complete strangers, they helped me through everything, so I did likewise— at least, as much as I could. They were much better than me at pretty much everything, which was understandable, but made me feel kind of useless.

All of it wasn't to much avail, though, as the four of us were still bruised and bleeding afterwards, but I didn't think it was as bad as it could have been. I definitely wasn't hurting as much as when it had just been me on that damn ship for Garp to 'train.' Though it might have been due more to the face that Garp had more victims— I mean, people— to focus on, rather than our pathetic attempts at escaping him.

In the end, when Garp dumped all of us in a pile back at Dadan's hut, the four of us were more than relieved; to be honest, we were all so exhausted, we didn't even make to move, even though I had an elbow digging into my ear and a smelly foot on my cheek, and I was sure the others were in similar positions. I was pretty content to just lay there, listening to the muted conversation that Garp and Dadan were having somewhere in the background in another room, but Sabo wriggled a bit and tried saying something, which led me to discover that my foot was on his face.

"Oh, sorry," I said sheepishly, adjusting the limb.

"Thanks." Sabo took in a lungful of air. "What I was _trying_ to say was–"

"Who the hell are you, anyway?" Ace- that _was_ his name, right?- asked abruptly and rather rudely from somewhere to my left.

"Dunno," I answered truthfully, ignoring his bluntness, "Though according to the old man, my name is Elias Wren."

"Shishishi! You don't know who you are? That's funny." The youngest laughed from somewhere on the top of our mess of tangled arms and legs.

"Huh," Sabo said, "Did you lose your memories?" I nodded. "And the shitty geezer knew your name? Did he know you before you lost them?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so. He said I had a name tag or something. Also he tried looking into my name, to see if I had any family or anything— according to him…I don't."

"So why are you here, then?" Ace demanded, while Luffy wriggled and asked a muffled question I couldn't quite decipher.

I shrugged. "Beats me. I know he could have left me there or something. He just said that I have a weird voice— whatever _that_ means— and that he was taking me somewhere 'fun.' It's not like I had a say in it."

Everything was silent for a moment, and I could hear the rumbling of Garp's voice in the background again, mixed in with bits of Dadan's indignant tones. Then, "Don't you wanna leave?" Ace asked abruptly.

I twisted awkwardly to look at him. His mouth was set in a hard in a frown, and I could tell that if he wouldn't have had one of his arms trapped beneath Sabo, he probably would have had them crossed. "At the moment?" I paused, thinking about it, "I dunno… Not really. You guys seem okay, and it's not like there's anywhere or anyone else I can go to."

I was being entirely honest; the three of them didn't seem bad. In fact, I _liked_ them. I couldn't explain it, but they all seemed almost… _familiar_ , as if I'd met them before, or at least seen them. I knew I hadn't, though. Not only was it impossible, but none of them showed any signs that they recognized _me_.

It was really frustrating— it was like knowing a word, and it's right at the tip of your tongue, you _know_ you know it, but you just can't seem to recall it, no matter what you do.

And then there were the mountain bandits. From what I'd seen of them, they were all pretty rough around the edges, but at least a few— if not most— of them seemed genuine. They'd demonstrated their caring (no matter how much they denied it) when they quickly checked up on us right after Garp's 'training session,' and seeing that there was only minimal bleeding, and you really couldn't do much about bruises, there wasn't much to be done except wrap us in a few bandages.

And as for Garp… Okay, he was _kind_ of an asshole. But I supposed he was better than most, and he wasn't going to be around every day to 'train' us, so that was good.

Finally succeeding in navigating the mess of everyone's tangled limbs, Luffy's head popped up next to mine. He looked at me closely, his brows pinching together. "You don't have a family?" He asked simply.

The question, of course, hit me like a ton of bricks.

"I think I did," I said quietly. "I may not remember what happened, but… I have the feeling I'm not going to see them again."

I had gotten angry when Garp had told me I didn't have a family, as I could have sworn there was… well, something, but as time passed, I began to realize that whoever was in my family, they were probably gone. Maybe not dead— it didn't feel that way— but gone. I would never see them again. So Garp was right. I didn't have a family— not anymore.

I could feel everyone's eyes on me. "Do you miss them?" Luffy asked.

"…Yeah."

As if a switch had flipped, Luffy beamed at me. "I've got it! I'll be your friend, like when Ace n' Sabo saved me from Porkmeat a week ago and they became my friends, so now they can also be yours, and then we can be like a family!" He declared in an almost unintelligible jumble of words, arms shooting out in excitement, one of which punched Ace in the stomach.

"Oh, sorry, Ace!"

"Idiot, don't go making decisions for other people!" Ace just grumbled while rubbing his new bruise.

Sabo sighed. "Only you, Luffy…"

A smile crept up onto my face, which transformed into a full-out grin when Luffy began doing a happy-looking jig— which to be honest was kind of ridiculous, but I couldn't help myself.

"Porkmeat?" I wondered aloud.

"An asshole," Ace said shortly, "And Luffy, remember you were blubbering like a baby—"

Luffy cut in, looking affronted. "I did not!"

"You did!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did no—"

"Okay, okay, there's no need for that!" Sabo interrupted, and I let out a sigh of relief, "Listen, Luffy, you did kind of cry a little bit—" Luffy pouted, and I was inclined to believe that whatever this was about, it wasn't about bad meat,"—but it was only because you were hurt! Ace knows that, so he should stop being mean about it." He finished with a pointed look at Ace, who sat up and crossed his arms.

"But–"

"No." Sabo said, sitting up, too, and Ace rolled his eyes. Since we were all getting up, I followed suit. "Anyway," he said, giving me a polite smile, "Like Luffy said, Ace and I would be happy to be your friends too. You don't seem like a bad guy. Right, Ace?"

Ace gave me a critical look. Then he let out a huff of air. "I guess he's not too bad…" he resigned finally.

"Yay!" Luffy cheered, then rocketed off the ground to snatch Ace up into a bear hug, straw hat slipping off his head. "Thanks Ace!"

Ace flushed deeply and muttered something unintelligible, and Luffy laughed. I smiled widely.

It was at that moment that Garp walked back into the room. He had a grim expression on his face, but when he saw the four of us, it melted away and was replaced by a wolfish grin. Instantaneously, we all scrambled backwards, sweating bullets.

"Well, I need to leave now, but I'll be back soon, brats! And get along!" Garp raised a hand, walked out, yelled something about being strong marines over his shoulder, and then was gone.

After being trapped with him for three weeks straight, it was hard to believe. I let out a long breath and plopped back onto the floor, staring up at the ceiling.

"We're safe..." I mumbled.

Luffy giggled, and they all followed along with me, falling back onto the floor, troubles of the day finally over, everything calm at last.

Well… at least until the dinner bell rang.

But after that scene, brief yet entirely chaotic in a way I can't even begin describe, we all collapsed in a heap in our bedroom, sleep catching up quickly. It had been a long day, and I was sure there were more to follow. From what I had seen that day, Ace, Sabo, and Luffy were a rowdy bunch. Everything they ever did somehow always turned into an adventure, captivating and dangerous.

But I liked it that way.

Thoroughly content for the first time in two weeks, I slept soundly, my new family by my side.

* * *

 **EDIT: This was edited August of 2017. A little has been changed, mainly grammar and some wording. Thank you for reading!**


	3. The Grey Terminal

Much to my chagrin, I was awoken the next morning via _very_ persistent prodding by a sticky finger.

"Wren. Hey. Wren," the owner of the finger whispered loudly.

"Wha-?" My eyes cracked open and I discovered I was being peered down upon by a young, grinning face.

I blinked blearily. "Oh- hey, Luffy."

"Hi, Wren!" He exclaimed, bouncing up and down on his haunches. "Finally!" Suddenly, a pillow appeared out of nowhere and nailed Luffy right in the back of the head. "Ack!"

"Shut up! It's the crack of dawn!" Ace snapped from a bit further away, glaring at the small kid. I looked through the window of the room and saw that the sky outside was still pretty much dark.

"Sorry, Ace!" Luffy resumed his "quiet" whispering, and Ace snorted, turning over, his back to us. Sabo, apparently, hadn't heard anything and was still snoring softly next to him.

I sat up, rubbing at my eyes and yawning. "What's up?" I asked Luffy, who was now looking quite dejected.

He pouted. "I'm bored and hungry! Meanie Ace doesn't wanna go outside and Sabo won't wake up! Will you come?" Abruptly, I was faced with the the biggest puppy eyes I had ever seen.

"That should be illegal…" I grumbled, and Luffy cocked his head, confused. "Alright, alright, I'll come with you," I conceded, getting to my feet sluggishly.

"Yay! You're the best!"

"You hardly know me…" I pointed out, but he only laughed. Yawning again, I followed along out the door when he tugged at my arm. The cool morning (or was it still considered night?) air was refreshing, and the dew left on the grass and foliage squelched under our feet as we walked along. I shot Luffy a glance from the corner of my eyes; he was whistling a tune and skipping rather merrily, straw hat bouncing along with him.

"Where are we going?" I asked him. I'd assumed there would be a kitchen or something for him to grab a snack from.

"To the river to catch a crocodile!" Luffy decided suddenly, waving around a metal pipe that he had somehow conjured when I hadn't been looking.

"Say what now?" If I hadn't been entirely awake before, I definitely was now. "Whoa, whoa, I can't do that! I don't even know how to hunt in the first place!"

"Huh? You don't? Well don't worry, my punch is as strong as a pistol!"

I was not reassured. He was like, seven, and he wanted to hunt a deadly reptilian creature? Granted, I had seen him come back with a boar the previous day, but something told me that had been more as a result of Ace and Sabo's work... "Right, why don't we maybe try to catch something _less_ dangerous—"

"Blah, booooring!" Luffy stuck out his tongue, then proceeded to wind his robbery fingers around my arm and tow me into the bowels of the forest. I dragged my feet in the dirt, intent on trying to convince him that, you know, I wasn't like Ace or Sabo and that death via crocodile maybe wasn't the best way to go, when he paused abruptly.

"Um, where's the river again?"

I let out a breath. We were saved.

"Oh right! It's this way!"

The dragging resumed.

"Okay, okay, I can walk!" I insisted, trying to pry his fingers off my arm, only to find that he had miraculously managed to knot his fingers together in the way that only a rubber human could. (A fact I'd learned during Garp's 'training session'.) "Luffy!"

"Shishishi, oops! Let me try—" somehow, the knots multiplied, "—Ah. My bad."

I rolled my eyes. Seriously, I had known him for like a day, and yet I had a feeling that only he could pull something like this. "Alright, Einstein, now we've gotta go back and get someone who has free reign over _both_ hands to get us out of this mess."

The puppy eyes made a reappearance. How did he do that? "But I wanna go get a crocodile! Tummy's hungry!"

He patted his stomach, and it responded with a loud, guttural roar.

I blinked. "Wow, I actually could have mistaken that for a bear or something."

"Huh? That wasn't tummy."

I frowned. "It wasn't?"

"Uh-uh."

"I see," I said, nodding. There was a pause.

"Luffy?"

"Yeah?"

"There wouldn't happen to be any bears in this jungle, would there?"

His jaw dropped. "There are! How'd you know? Have you met one?"

There was another roar, followed by a growl. "No, but I think we're about to!"

"AH!" We screamed, and I thought we finally had a chance to get out of here, but then, "We can have that instead of crocodile!"

I froze. " _What?!_ Wait-!"

"Here, beary, beary, beary! We're definitely not gonna eat you or anything!"

Two figures emerged from the trees, cloaked in shadows. I squinted to try to make them out in the low light; Luffy continued to make remarks about our to-be breakfast which was more likely to be our to-be grim reaper.

There was another roar, and it seemed to emanate from the direction of the two figures.

"AH! THE BEAR'S COME TO EAT US!" Luffy did a one-eighty as tears streamed down his face and he clutched at me, "I DON'T WANNA DIE YET!"

"I THOUGHT YOUR PUNCH WAS AS STRONG AS A PISTOL?!"

Suddenly, there was a sharp knock on my head and then Luffy's when one of the figures darted forwards. "IT'S NOT A BEAR, YOU IDIOTS!" Ace snapped, face redder than a tomato.

We both clutched at our heads. "Ace—?!" The roar sounded again, only this time…

"Hahaha, Ace, your stomach is pretty loud!" Sabo revealed himself as the second figure, who was now doubled over with laughter.

I couldn't help staring. "That's ridiculous…" I muttered. Luffy, however, had joined his friend and got another knock on his head as a result.

"Ahaha…" Sabo wiped a tear from his eye and then jumped down to join us. "Ace, why don't you try to be a little nicer?" he chastised, and Ace grumbled.

I shook my head slowly. "I thought you guys wanted to sleep."

Ace looked sideways. "We thought we'd tag along. 'Cause we wanted to." On cue, his stomach rumbled and his cheeks reddened again.

Wisely deciding not to comment, (although Luffy unfortunately did not possess that tact, earning him another glare), I gave him a sheepish smile and held up my arm, Luffy's knotted fingers still attached. "Well whatever your reason, I'm glad you're here. This is kinda embarrassing, and neither of us can get it off. Also, my arm's going numb, which is probably not good."

"Wow, how'd that happen?" Sabo commented, drawing closer as Ace— after a moment— grudgingly began to tug at the knots.

I side-eyed Luffy, then sighed, head drooping. "I don't even know…"

"Hahaha!"

Ace, luckily, was a miracle worker with knots and managed to get us untangled within two minutes; an impressive feat, considering the impossible way that they had been twisted into. After that little adventure, Luffy had his mind absolutely set on getting a crocodile, (to which Ace commented that he'd better not get eaten again, once again leaving me wondering), and so they'd taken me along to the river, where Sabo decided to try to teach me a little about how to hunt.

Let's just say that it wasn't Luffy that was swallowed by a crocodile that morning.

As a result of those events and a good measure of guilt, Sabo became hard set on getting me a weapon of my own: a lead pipe, something of which they all used regularly. So after a hearty breakfast of crocodile meat (or rice in my case as I had yet to snag a piece in my two meals with them), my three new friends guided me through the jungle on a near fifty minute hike to what they called 'The Grey Terminal.' The name of it sounded frustratingly familiar. Not only that, though; that feeling, the one of familiarity, was becoming almost agonizing it happened so often. And yet, I could never place exactly how or why I felt that way. Needless to say, it was a little more than concerning.

"Oh yeah," Ace warned as we approached the edge of the jungle, "You might wanna plug your nose for a bit until you get used to the smell."

I just nodded and did as he said; for some reason, he didn't seem as cold after the crocodile incident. Well— at the very least he didn't outright _glare_ at me anymore.

As we broke through the trees, I could see why he had told me what he had; almost as far as the eye could see were mountains of… junk. There was anything and everything. Battered, bruised books and bookcases, crushed carriages, splintered wheels, torn tarps and shattered glass and bags bursting at the brim with slimy remains of whatever object; it was truly and undeniably a dump. Strangely enough, however, it had an odd appeal. Through the piles of rubble and scrap there were clearly defined paths and roads, as if the entire thing itself were… a _city_.

If it was a city, it was a fantastic and bizarre one, where trash took the form of lumpy houses and grotesque gardens and chimneys from which smoke bloomed like misshapen flowers; it was the kingdom of the outcasts and the unfortunate, where there was nothing but a person's own morality to keep them from doing what their primal instincts screamed for. It was a landscape of waste and a true valley of ashes.

"Wow…" I breathed.

"Yeah, it's kind of overwhelming at first," Sabo grinned, carefully but quickly beginning to make his way down the steep slope, "Okay, come on, let's go find some weapons. Good thing, too; we needed to grab a couple new ones ourselves, Ace."

Ace just nodded in agreement and followed, Luffy and I not far behind.

It didn't take long for the four of us to find some suitable pipes. There was so much everywhere it was complete child's play. Something that did catch my attention as we sifted through the junk was a thick tome; on the cover, it had some funny words that I recognized, but definitely weren't in English.

' _La Vida del Rey de los Piratas_.'

The Life of the King of the Pirates? I fished it out. It was pretty heavy and was approximately the size of my entire torso.

"What a big book!" Sabo exclaimed, appearing just behind me, "But what does it say?"

"Uh, I think it's ' _The Life_ -'"

"HEY!" A deep, scratchy voice interrupted, and Sabo and I whipped around to see a middle-aged man lumbering towards us, hand on the sword that hung from his belt, "Yer Sabo, aren't yeh! Captain Bluejam's put a reward fer anyone that comes back wit' yer and yer friend's heads on a plate!"

Sabo's eyes widened. "Oh, shit." He drew his weapon.

"What're you doing?!" I asked, bewildered.

He rolled his eyes. "There's just one of him. Ace and I could take him down by ourselves any day. I'm more worried about Bluejam and this 'reward.'"

The man growled, drawing his sword. "Yeh better not underestimate me, brat." Then he seemed to notice me, as if I hadn't been standing right behind Sabo the entire time. Had I blended in with the trash or something?

"Eh? Wait, yer Ace, aren't yeh! All ta better- I'll get twice te reward!"

I waved a hand. "No, no, I'm not Ace…"

Sabo looked pained, as if the man's idiocy was actually causing him physical harm. "They don't even look remotely alike…"

The man frowned. "Huh? Then where is 'e?"

"I'M RIGHT HERE, YOU DUMBASS!" The man was sent flying into the nearest trash pile by a solid kick to the face, courtesy of Ace, who had just materialized from a neighboring trash pile along with Luffy.

"Yeah! Ace is so strong!" Luffy cheered, arms encumbered with numerous objects, the most obvious being a large number of back-up pipes.

Another generic-looking ruffian, having heard the ruckus, emerged from somewhere else. He caught sight of the other guy, who was now laying in a boneless heap, and gasped.

"Bob! No! You bastards!" he turned on us and was made short work by both Ace and Sabo.

Shortly following that, of course, another three guys appeared. A man of marginally higher intellect apparently resided in this mix, because he took a moment to pause and take in the scene and hold the other two back, rather than just straight up charging.

"Wait…" the guy muttered to himself, "One, two… One, two, _three_ … One, two, three... _four_ …?! WHY THE FUCK DID THEY MULTIPLY?!"

I snickered, Luffy laughed, and then Sabo, Ace, and Luffy attacked. I hung back, not trusting myself with fighting yet. The guy called Bob twitched at one point, though, and made a grab for my ankle, so I whacked him on the head with my book. It made a heavy 'thwack' as it hit, and he didn't bother me again. Whoever said words weren't a weapon?

Ace, Luffy, and Sabo finished the others off, proceeded to loot them, and then the four of us took off back towards the jungle, spoils of our exploit in hand.

A little ways in, we took an unexpected (well, to me at least) sharp turn, traveled a bit further, then climbed a tree to a little alcove, where there was a dark and deep hollow, the entrance large enough for kids like us to step through comfortably.

"Wren, don't ever tell anyone what you're about to see, got it?" Ace warned, and I nodded. Whatever it was, who was I going to tell it to anyway? My sunflowers? Not that I _talked_ to them or anything…

Okay, sue me. It got _lonely_ on that marine ship.

We all ducked in, and I was met with the reason why they wanted to keep this particular place secret.

Small, neat piles of gold, silver, and other treasures were amassed in neat piles everywhere I looked, all of it glimmering with that strange golden glow that only valuables seem to have.

"Wow…" I breathed for the second time that day. Sabo and Ace emptied the treasure they had brought into another small pile.

"This is our pirate fund!" Sabo explained cheerfully, "Ace and I spent five years gathering this amount."

"This is definitely a lot," I commented, "And this is where you keep it all?"

"That's right," answered Ace proudly.

A thought occurred to me. "That's great, but… Wouldn't it be safer to split it up and hide it in a few different places? What if something happened- Like if someone found it?"

Sabo froze. "Ah… I didn't think of doing that."

"That… That's actually not a bad idea…" Ace admitted.

"Wow, Sabo and Ace are dumb!" Luffy commented unnecessarily, which earned him a punch over the head.

"I don't wanna hear that from _you_!"

It was a long day after that, spent mostly on splitting the gold three ways and then hiding it in different locations, since Ace and Sabo had felt the need to act on the idea immediately. One of the bunch stayed in its original place, while another went to another, smaller hollow in a high tree limb further away, and the last much closer to Dadan's hut and the furthest from the Grey Terminal.

Once that was all done, we went hunting again, caught an unusually large deer, lugged it back to Dadan's, proceeded to have dinner (during which I had to fight tooth and nail for a _single_ piece), and finally retreated back to our room to turn in for the night. That was where I at last managed to crack open the tome I had found back at the Grey Terminal.

It was Ace this time that peered over my shoulder, as Sabo was helping Luffy get out of the awkward position he had managed to get into while putting on his shirt: one arm and his head going through the same arm hole. Sometimes it was better not to ask. "Can you read that?" Ace wondered, "It doesn't look like English."

"Yeah, I can. Dunno how, though… I know this language. I just… forgot what it's called."

Ace looked interested. "What does it say?" Sabo had saved Luffy from his predicament by this point and both had wandered over.

"' _The Life of the King of the Pirates_ ,'" I translated off the cover. Ace stiffened and Sabo looked suddenly nervous, whereas Luffy had visible sparkles in his eyes.

"What's that?" I asked them, "The term seems familiar but I can't remember that, either…"

"IT'S THE COOLEST THING EVER IS WHAT IT IS!" Luffy all but squealed, "WHAT'S IN IT, WREN, WHAT'S IN IT?!"

I was taken aback— not at how excited he was, but at his enthusiasm for a book. Given the striking similarities between him and Garp, I hadn't expected him to really like books—

Ah. It was probably not so much as to because it was a book; most likely it was because it was about the Pirate King, something he clearly was highly passionate about, though I couldn't figure as to why.

"I don't think we should read it." Ace said curtly.

"What?!" Luffy squawked, "C'mon Ace! Just a little!"

"No."

"Pleeeeaaaase?"

Ace's jaw twitched. He stared at Luffy, then Sabo, then me. Finally, with crossed arms, he sat down. " _One_ chapter." he said tersely.

"Yay! Thanks, Ace!" Luffy enveloped him in a rubbery embrace, and Ace glowered.

Sabo let out a breath and plopped down with the rest of us, and I resigned myself to the fact that I was about to translate a whole chapter of this tome, written in an entire other language, to English. What the hell was a book like this been doing in that trash pile, anyway?

Shaking my head, I cracked open the book.

' _Capítulo uno_ …' "Chapter one…" ' _El hombre nacido en Loguetown_ …' "The man born in Loguetown…"

What followed was a detailed description of the life of a man by the name of Gol D. Roger. It followed him from the point he was a child up to where he was about to set off for an adventure as a pirate into the Grand Line.

Of course, that's where the chapter ended. It had been an extremely long one and I was now translating by candlelight; the wick had been tall when we had first lit it, and now it was only a stub.

At the end, Ace seemed to still be brooding but somewhat fascinated, Luffy was extremely giddy, and Sabo was in awe.

"Maybe I was wrong…" I heard Ace mutter, more to himself than anyone else.

Over the course of the next few days, I continued to read to them with Ace's grudging consent, until we got to a certain point in Roger's journey— when he was about to enter the Grand Line— where Luffy outright refused to hear any more, claiming that it was enough and he didn't want it to ruin the adventure he was going to have one day. The book went under the floorboards after that, hidden but not forgotten.

The next several months held their own brand of mystery, mischievousness, and adventure.

It was a slow process, but I was learning how to fight; after Ace and Sabo established the one hundred and fifty fights per day rule, I took turns sparring with the two of them and Luffy. They all had their own unique fighting styles— Luffy in particular with his devil fruit. He was insistent on using his abilities while sparring, convinced that he'd get a hold of them with each match, and each time had a crazy new idea to go along with it. Ace wasn't… as _convinced_ as Luffy was, but Sabo and I believed that he'd probably pull something off eventually. I mean, you can only go wrong so many times before you get it right.

Luffy continued to accidentally punch himself in the face or get likewise self-inflicted injuries, which was pretty much the only reason I ever won against him when we fought. After a few months, I was actually fairly decent— not as good as Ace, Sabo, or even Luffy (when he wasn't actively trying to use his abilities)— but I could genuinely hold my own against a crocodile now, a feat that I was pretty proud about.

Another notable change was that with every passing week, Ace actually grew much warmer than I'd ever seen him be. I had a feeling that Luffy had more to do with it than anything; the guy was a complete endless well of joy and happiness, so it was understandable that Ace would get caught up in that. He wasn't the only one guilty of it.

It was on a bright, summer day that we ran into the first real trouble that we'd had in awhile.

Hidden under a long cloak, the four of us approached the main city of Goa Kingdom, intent on selling the crocodile skins we'd harvested for more gold for the pirate fund. Sabo also wanted to treat the three of us to a food called ramen, neither Luffy, Ace, nor I having ever eaten it before. (Well— I at least _assumed_ I hadn't).

We were stacked on top of each other in a rather peculiar fashion; Ace was the head (as he looked oldest and could manipulate his voice), Luffy was the torso, and Sabo served as the legs. We had to come up with a plan to include me, as I certainly well couldn't add onto them and it would look more suspicious than it already did for a shady character to have an equally shady kid, so in the end, I ended up hanging off Luffy's back like some sort of koala-monkey hybrid. It kind of made the mystery figure we were posing as look like they had an enormous and misshapen rear end, but hey, whatever works, right?

Wrong. I guess it looked like we were some shady guy trying to sneak drugs into the city, because the guards stopped us, tried to give us a pat-down, and, well… I can't help that I'm really ticklish, okay!

Anyway, we had to beat them off our tails and find some other entrance to the city. We knew of a secret few, but it just made lugging the crocodile skins in harder, which was why we'd tried to go through the main entrance in the first place.

We did have a few mishaps… but that's a story for another day.

What really matters is that we finally did turn in the crocodile skins for loot, afterwhich we traveled into High Town, where Sabo pulled a sketchy move with some gold crest to get us into a fancy restaurant with a private room. I decided to ask about it later. Food first.

Sabo was right— not that I'd doubted him— about ramen being delicious. The four of us scarfed down about thirty-four bowls in total before the waitress and owner barged in and found us out. I'd discovered just how hungry I could get from running around all the time, (or maybe Luffy, Ace, and Sabo were rubbing off on me), and consumed seven myself– though Luffy had done the most damage, a whopping ten bowls.

We escaped out the window and onto the street down below, taking off the moment our feet hit the ground, much to the owner's and guards' dismay.

"Let's leave a different way!" Sabo called back to us, already ahead. "I don't wanna run into those guards at the gate again!"

Ace rolled his eyes. "We can beat them up again."

"MMMHM!" Luffy added, still struggling to chew what was probably two entire bowls of ramen.

"There's bound to be more, now, though," I argued, before hesitating. "But then again, I reeeaally don't wanna go through that _other_ entire fiasco again…"

They all hastily voiced their agreement. Sabo turned slightly, and began to say something else, when he ran straight into some _especially_ pompous-looking noble, knocking himself off his feet and nearly the other guy, too.

The man looked enraged for a moment, obviously ready to scream, but when he looked down his nose at Sabo his eyes widened to almost comical proportions. "Sabo?!" he exclaimed, voice just as nasally and oily as you would expect. "You're _alive_?!"

Sabo froze on the ground, his expression contorting to nothing I'd ever seen him wear before. He looked to be choking on something rotten, and had the desperate light of a caged animal in his eyes.

"Sabo?!" I exclaimed, dashing over to get him up.

Ace and Luffy stood their ground. "Who the hell are you?!" Ace demanded, pointing his pipe at the man threateningly.

The man ignored him, continuing to stare at Sabo. "Is that really you?!"

Even as I pulled him off the ground, Sabo began to shake violently. I came to the immediate conclusion that this was Not Good. "No!" he cried, pushing back from the man.

"Ace!" I hissed back at him, "We need to go!"

Ace took the hint and looked at Sabo; his eyes hardened.

The man took a step forward and made to push me off Sabo, asking— no, _ordering_ — Sabo to tell him if it was really him, and where's he's been, and how disgraceful he was being, covered in grime and making company with _trash_ —

It wasn't like I was about to let him touch either me or Sabo, not with the way Sabo was behaving and not with the crap he was saying, but Ace got there first, Luffy not far behind; he gave the man a crushing wallop over the head with his pipe, Luffy following with another, and the man went down like an over-priced sack of potatoes.

"Come on!" Ace urged, because people were beginning to crowd and indigent cries were heard, and the guards were shouting, coming our way. He and Luffy lead the way keeping it clear, and I kept up with Sabo in tow, making sure he didn't fall or anything. I wasn't a doctor, but I was pretty sure he was going into shock. Which again, Not Good.

We managed to make it out, and we didn't stop until we got through the Grey Terminal, and back to the jungle, where we stopped near a little cliff that overlooked the sea that we all liked— meaning, we stored some supplies here, since we spent a lot of time around.

I made sure to lie him down on some and cover him with an old blanket we'd had stashed. Other than that, I just knew it was best to try to calm him down— which we did. It took a few hours— until the sun was setting and the moon had risen— but none of us cared. Sabo would be okay.

Ace and Luffy went to go grab some quick game and brought it back within fifteen minutes, during which I created a merry-looking fire. We cooked and ate, and laid back on the grass and looked up at the stars, chattering a bit about this and that. Never anything big. I think the three of us— Ace, Luffy and I— were afraid Sabo would go back into shock.

Eventually, though, there was a lull, and the atmosphere seemed to change. Sabo sighed and all four of us sat up; Ace's mouth was set in a hard line and there was a slight crease between Luffy's eyes. I could feel my own shoulders were tense, but I wasn't going to be the first one to speak up.

"Sabo…" Ace began, but Sabo shook his head.

"Look, I appreciate what you guys have done, but you don't wanna know."

"Of course we wanna know!" Luffy frowned, crossing his arms.

Sabo's fists clenched up. "You don't!"

" _We_ don't wanna know, or do _you_ not want _us_ to know?" I offered.

"Both!" Sabo exploded, throwing his hands up. "You'd hate me! I promise you, you'd hate me."

Ace's voice was hard. "Why don't you tell us, and then let us judge? We shouldn't have secrets between each other, you know."

"I doubt there's anything you could do that could make us hate you." I reassured.

"I'll never hate you!" Luffy proclaimed, which made us all smile a little— not that anyone would admit it.

Sabo was silent a moment. "Fine," he said finally. "I'll tell you." He took a deep breath… then proceeded to explain to us about how he was the son of nobles from the kingdom, it was his father we'd seen, and how absolutely _miserable_ life was for him over there, all because of society and nobles and his parents. It made everyone's blood boil. I was glad that Ace and Luffy had whacked him earlier that day, though now I didn't think they'd done it quite hard enough, nor _enough_ in general.

As to the fact that Sabo had been born a noble— well, none of us could care less. So what if he was one? It was _him_ that defined who he was, not his parents, and I told him as much. Sabo looked positively elated, and Luffy and Ace agreed with me wholeheartedly.

Sabo suddenly straightened and gained a resolute expression. "Ace, Luffy, Wren…! Promise that we'll set sail! That we'll escape this kingdom and be free!" He grinned, "I want more than anything to see the world and write a book about my adventures! Studying navigation won't be hard at all! Let's all get stronger and become pirates!"

We all mirrored his grin, and Ace suddenly laughed. "I would do that even if you hadn't suggested it!" he claimed, "Well _I'm_ gonna be a pirate and win and win and win! I'll be famous; that's the only way to prove that I was alive!" Ace turned towards the sea, yelling out to the dark depths and endless stars. "No matter how much people reject and hate me, I'm gonna be a famous pirate and show them all! I won't run from anyone! I won't lose to anyone! And I'll never be afraid or anything! I'm gonna make the whole world remember my name!"

 _I_ wasn't going to be left out. "I'm not entirely sure what my dream is yet," I admitted, "But I know that I wanna discover where I came from, and the only way to do that is to set sail!" Staring up into the sky, I let out a deep breath. "I'll definitely become a pirate along with you guys, and I don't wanna let anyone down so I'll get stronger, too! I'll get stronger and stronger and though you guys are always protecting me nowadays, one day _I'll_ be the one protecting you!"

Luffy giggled, "Oh yeah? All right!" He walked over to the edge of the cliff, raised his arms, took in a lungful of air, and then, "WELL, I'M GONNA BE THE PIRATE KING!"

"Huh?" My, Sabo, and Ace's jaws dropped; hell, I had known Luffy had been enthusiastic about the pirate king, but now that I knew he wanted to be _pirate king_ … I should have connected the dots earlier. It seemed like a perfectly fitting dream for him, and I was getting that certain feeling again that I had heard this all before…

"Ahahaha!" Sabo laughed, "That's great, Luffy!"

"Geez… The things you say…" Ace said as he stared him.

"Hehehe, I can't wait for us to set out!" I added in.

"But how can all of us be captain?" Sabo wondered as Ace beckoned to us and began to lead us somewhere in the jungle.

"Why don't we stress about that later?" I commented, nearly crashing into Luffy when we stopped. We had only gone a bit deeper in.

Ace paused at a tree stump and reached into the hollow at the base, after a moment pulling out four bright red sake cups and a shiny-looking bottle of the stuff. "Wren's right–- let's leave future decisions for the future. Who knows? Maybe we'll all be on separate ships!" He placed the cups on the stump.

"Oh! You stole some of Dadan's liquor?!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Hehehe, what made you to do that?" I laughed.

Ace smiled, a hint of a flush creeping up to his face, "Well, I've been planning on doing this for a while… now seemed the right time to do it."

"Have you gone all soppy, Ace?" Sabo teased.

Ace smirked at him. "Speak for yourself!" He then began to pull at the cork on the sake bottle. "Did you guys know?" The top came off with a 'pop.' "If you share a drink, you can become brothers!"

Luffy gained a wide smile, "Brothers?! Really?" Sabo looked delighted; my expression mirrored his. Ace poured sake into each of the cups.

"We might not be on the same ship when we become pirates," Ace continued, "But this will bind us all as brothers! No matter where we are or what we do, nothing can break this bond…!"

Together, we all raised our cups towards the moon, and clinked them together. "FROM TODAY ON, WE'RE BROTHERS!"

"YEAH!" We all cheered, and then, as one, downed the sake.

* * *

 **EDIT: Edited August of 2017. Mostly grammar and some word choice. There was one scene I was uncomfortable with, however, and I chose to delete most of it.**


	4. I Don't Think I Like Fires Anymore

**Chapter 4: I Don't Think I Like Fires Anymore**

I hadn't thought it possible, but somehow all the days after we became brothers seemed even better than the ones we'd had before. We worked more like a team than ever, taking down wild beasts and other challenges together like a well-oiled machine. The four of us were hardly ever apart.

We now tended to avoid high town as much as possible and stuck mainly to the outer reaches of the city and the Grey Terminal, not exactly too keen on having a repeat of what had happened with Sabo's father. There were plenty things to collect, see, and do without going in that stifling place; we all hunted for things we found useful, (books were what I looked for mainly, of which I read before bed to the other three. Ace was stubborn, though, and wouldn't admit that he enjoyed story time as much as Luffy did), looted other criminals and likewise for treasure, and found decent challengers to our strength to battle. The pretty lady I had first seen when first arriving on the island, Makino, began travelling up along with the mayor to check up on us. She must have been some sort of saint; every time she visited, she came with new clothes for all of us and she made the best-tasting food I had ever eaten. Not to mention she gave the best hugs. Everyone adored her; Ace even developed a crush. His face would get as red as Dadan's ultra-rare meat special (which she prepared more often than you'd think) whenever she approached him, and the rest of us would nearly suffocate from extraordinarily poorly-concealed giggles.

Garp visited for the first time in a blue moon, and after learning that the four of us had become brothers, insisted that Sabo and I begin calling him 'Gramps.' Initially, Sabo and I hadn't been too willing to comply, but then the training session happened.

Gramps it was.

The entire week he had been there he had been constantly mentioning to me that he wanted to talk about something. As to what that was, I hadn't figured out until the very last hour of his visit, since all the other times Ace, Sabo, and Luffy had made a point to stick around me, having heard themselves of this 'private talk' that Gramps wanted to have. None of us really trusted him not to drag any of us to a secret solo training, (Ace and Luffy had plenty of horrid stories about those, one of which included _balloons_ ). Finally, however, after much pestering, bickering, and an oath on Gramp's part that this 'talk' had nothing to do with neither training nor fighting monkeys, the old fart lugged me deeper into the jungle where we would be less likely to be heard by eavesdropping ears.

He plopped down onto a mossy, fallen log, patting a flat rock in front of him, looking at me expectantly. I gave it a suspicious once-over before tentatively sitting down.

I waited a few moments, but he didn't seem like he was going to speak any time soon. "So, what–"

"I don't like keeping secrets," Gramps said abruptly, and my eye twitched. "Sengoku- the fleet admiral of the marines- he's the one that told me to keep you safe, but now he's beginning to have doubts."

My mind whirred, processing the new information. "The fleet admiral? Why would someone like that care about someone like me?"

"He doesn't _care_ about you," Gramps huffed, "Well, maybe a little bit since he likes kids, but he doesn't care about you, he cares about your _potential_."

"Wow, that's heartwarming," I said dryly.

That made Gramps guffaw. He wiped a tear from his eye. "You tell _him_ that, brat!" Then he shook his head and took on a more serious expression. "You have more promise than you think. That could make you a valuable ally, or…" He let the statement hang.

My face scrunched up as I realized what he was implying. How in the hell could I be dangerous? The only thing I posed any threat to whatsoever was my lunch. Really, the most I could do was read books, help collect the pirate fund, and hunt stuff, and that last one I couldn't even do on my own! "I think you've got the wrong person," I told him.

He stared at me for a hard moment, as if attempting to read my thoughts. For the life of me, I could not tell an inch of what he was thinking himself. "No. I'm sure of it." His eyes drifted down to my neck. I was sure he was looking at my scar. "You're certain that you don't remember anything? Nothing at all?"

"I don't remember a thing." I hadn't thought about my scar in a while; the last time it had crossed my mind was when Luffy asked me about it the second week I'd known him. But it had been many months since then, and I'd almost forgotten it even existed since there were no mirrors around and I wasn't really the type to stare at my reflection. It also probably helped that I had taken to constantly wearing that aviator's jacket I had fallen onto Sabaody with; it was fuzzy around the neck and concealed the scar from view most of the time.

"Maybe that's for the better…" He muttered. Gramps then straightened, as if remembering something. "You still have that sunflower Dart gave you, don't you?"

I did; it was stuck in a vase, perched on the windowsill of the window in Dadan's hut. But what did that have to do with anything? "Yeah, why?"

"Just don't lose it." he told me ambiguously, dusting off his pants and getting up. Clearly, he was done with our chat; I, however, was not.

"Whoa, wait," I held up a hand and he stopped, curiosity evident on his features, "What do you know about me? And why aren't Luffy or Ace included in this ' _talk_ '- you brought them here, too, didn't you? There must have been some reason for it– for bringing us all here."

He gave me another long look. I shifted nervously when he didn't respond; it was unlike him to be so quiet, and it was frankly unsettling. "You're way too smart for your own good, kid," He finally voiced, "I'm not going to tell you everything. But I will tell you this; Luffy and Ace are more than dangerous. If the world learned about them, it would have them killed." My heart nearly stopped at that.

"But you're not like that." I said.

"No."

"You're trying to keep us safe."

"Right."

"That's why you want us to become marines?"

Gramps didn't answer that one; he just looked sad. I spoke again. "You know… If the world would want them dead now when they're just kids, why would becoming marines stop that from happening?"

Gramps didn't answer that one, either. Then he chose to answer my very first question, evading the last two. He began to walk away, back towards Dadan's, back towards Foosha, back towards his ship, back to whatever marine base he was stationed at. "I told you, brat, you have a weird voice. People who know what that means would demand the same thing for you as they would for Ace or Luffy— that or they'd use you." He paused, but didn't look back. "Be careful, brat. Watch over your brothers. This world… It's not always a good one."

I sat there as he went off, lost in a flurry of emotions and conflicting thoughts until Ace, Sabo, and Luffy found me and pulled me out of it. They wanted to know what Gramps had spoken to me about; I didn't want to tell them. But they insisted, just as they had when we had been questioning Sabo some months back and eventually I gave in, telling them the bits that I could without making it sound too morbid. Looking at the expressions on their faces following the explanation, though, it was clear that I'd failed at it.

"I'll beat their heads in before anyone lays a hand on any of you," Sabo swore. "But man, I wish that guy would give a straight answer. What'd he mean by 'you have a weird voice'?"

I just shrugged, unable to provide him with a better answer.

From that point on, the four of us made a bigger effort to stay together at all times. Whether we were hunting, adventuring, looting, or scavenging in the Grey Terminal, each of us was always within sights within one another.

It was Ace that came up with the newest idea.

"We need our own place," he announced one day, "Somewhere we can stay at and be safe whenever Gramps stops by."

No one disagreed. In fact, the plan was met with more than a little enthusiasm. With some assistance from Luffy's vivid imagination, we procured the idea of an enormous treehouse; it was to be at a location farther from Dadan's and closer to the Grey Terminal, but not too far as to make it a hassle to visit, and not too close that it would be easy for the people in the Grey Terminal to find it if they ever came looking for us.

It was a laborious task, but after around a month of building (during which we quickly learned not to let Luffy put together the really important parts, a.k.a. the flooring) it was finally complete, fit snugly into the branches of the tallest and sturdiest tree in the area. Not an hour after its completion, we raced back to Dadan's, gathered all our stuff (including my sunflower, of which I'd begun to keep a better eye on), hastily scribbled her a note, and dashed back to the treehouse and settled in.

Life was much sweeter after that. Days were spent more relaxed and we all became even more protective of one another than before, having much to do with our newfound knowledge and the mindset of "us vs the world" that we'd developed after the chat with Gramps. We continued to spar 150 times per day, discover things in the Grey Terminal, and we even began visiting many of the restaurants around low town to pull dine-and-dashes— which were incredibly amusing to execute, especially when the owners of the restaurant thought they could catch us with trapped food. Their faces when they found out that Luffy could stretch was priceless.

Sabo found some cool adventure and mystery books in the Grey Terminal and the both of us took turns reading them to everyone, at times going deep into the night and into the early light of dawn if it was _really_ good. Ace found discarded gallons of perfectly decent paint, and we used slabs of wood as canvases to create our own immensely colorful scenes, then hanging them up in the treehouse as interesting decor. I found a joke book– a really bad joke book full of puns and other groan-inducing one-liners, and absolutely fell in love with it. I was never on the verge of being murdered more often after that. And Luffy– of course it had been Luffy– found an ancient, scraggly, slip of a dog one day, and abruptly, Ace, Sabo, and I had been faced with two pairs of watering puppy eyes begging us to keep it.

One does not simply say no to Luffy.

Thus, the dog was dubbed 'Elvis,' ("Why'd you pick that?" "Dunno."), and it lasted a whopping ten minutes before it had a heart attack or something and croaked while witlessly chewing on Ace's funky-smelling foot. I wasn't even surprised; I _told_ him he needed to wash more thoroughly.

We did not get another dog or mention 'Elvis' in front of Luffy again. Coincidentally, it became a common sight whenever bathtime rolled around to see Ace scrubbing his feet with a bar of soap for at _least_ ten minutes, muttering under his breath.

I also made it a habit to get the newspaper every week, either snatching it from Dadan once she was finished or by heading down to Foosha along with Ace, Sabo, and Luffy to retrieve it while also getting to visit Makino and some acquaintances we'd made. Sabo and I made it clear to Ace and Luffy that things were probably heavily edited, but nonetheless it was still fascinating to read about the pirates that roamed and the incidents that occurred around the world. Luffy became particularly excited whenever Red Haired Shanks was mentioned, and even took a liking to Whitebeard after learning that he used to duel with the Pirate King. Ace, of course, promptly came up with the "good idea" that the _strongest man in the world_ was the first one he was going to take down when he got to the Grand Line.

"Ace, that's dumb." Sabo deadpanned, and I nodded along, Luffy mimicking me.

"What?! What do you mean it's dumb?"

"Well, he's not the strongest man for nothing!" I added in. "He has Marco the Phoenix in his crew! Imagine who else he could have!"

"Wait, I hadn't thought of that…" He frowned for a moment before suddenly grinning again. "I'll just have to get the strongest crew then, too!"

"No, I'm gonna do that! My crew's gonna be even better than Shanks'!" Luffy burst out, clutching at his straw hat like he did whenever he mentioned the pirate.

"Wait, wait!" Sabo held up a hand, "All of that takes a long time! We've still got a long ways to go— and we've got a lot of training to do ourselves!"

"Besides," I grinned at Ace, "Even if you've got your own crew in the future, it's not like we'd let you face someone like _that_ yourself. He has a bigass fleet. We're brothers, right? You won't be on your own when that time comes."

Sabo and Luffy voiced their agreement, and then we all made the possibly suicidal decision to one day face the strongest man in the world. But at least we were doing it together, right?

* * *

All in all, everything was going well.

Until, of course, it didn't.

The windstorm hit suddenly; one moment everything had been calm and as was normal, and the next Ace, Sabo, Luffy and I were scrambling to get back to the treehouse lest we get blown away by the fierce, roaring gale, all of us having already grabbed at least once onto a nearby tree root to anchor ourselves. We were lucky that it was already nearing dusk and we'd already hunted and eaten dinner, otherwise it would have been a longer night than it turned out being. As hefty as it was, there were several tearing noises throughout the hours until morning when the storm ceased as quickly as it had appeared, and upon inspection, it was discovered that several boards had been knocked loose and needed repairing. I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Somehow, I knew that there was going to be more to today than just loose boards.

None of us had planned on heading into the Grey Terminal that day, but as it seemed, fate had different ideas. So we trudged back to that valley of ashes and began digging around for some suitable planking, nails, and even some metal to reinforce it.

That was when we were ambushed by none other than Bluejam. I hated the guy as soon as I laid eyes on him- and that was something that didn't happen often.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the only surprise of the day; shortly after, once Bluejam and his cronies had succeeded in subduing us– with much effort, there was no way we would have made it easy– one of the people that Sabo probably hated most in the world had the _gall_ to show his ugly face. But Outlook III hadn't appeared just to sneer and monologue his hatred for us; he wanted Sabo, and he was willing to get him by any means necessary, even going as far as threatening Ace, Luffy, and mine's lives as leverage to get Sabo to do what _he_ wanted.

"Stop it!" There were tears in Sabo's eyes. I felt rage slowly bubble up inside me. "Stop it! I'll go! Just don't hurt them any more!"

"Damn it, Sabo, don't do this! We can fight them!" Ace called after him as he turned away. But Sabo didn't turn back; he began slowly walking away, head bowed, his fath– _that man's–_ hand on one of his shoulders.

"SABO! DON'T LEAVE US!" Luffy cried, and Sabo tensed for the briefest of moments. One of the pirates bonked him on the head to try to keep him quiet, and Luffy whimpered; Ace and I growled at the the asshole who'd done it.

"SABO…!" I shouted after him. I _knew_ what I was about to say was definitely going to make things worse, but he _needed_ to hear it. We were _not_ going to bow down to that bastard. "Don't think we'll leave things like this! We're _brothers_! Nothing can break our bond!" Before the pirate holding me smashed my face into the dirt, I saw Sabo's fists clench and his shoulders begin to shake. Good.

He knew.

* * *

Once Sabo and Outlook III were out of sight, Bluejam and his crew proceeded to drag the three of us to their hideout in the bay. It was hardly much more than a run-down hut, their battered and poorly-maintained pirate ship docked in the little cove near it.

Bluejam had plopped down in a large chair with a bottle of rum as if he hadn't a worry in the world and promptly began spouting his internal thoughts to us. Why the hell he and some people did that, I didn't know why. But as he droned on, it seemed that he was trying to convince us that _Sabo_ was the bad guy– that he'd been doing nothing but toying with us and that he really probably "despised" us. None of us were remotely convinced, not even Luffy, who usually believed most of what people said. Luffy even went as far as to snap that Sabo hated High Town– but Bluejam waved it off and responded that if we knew what was best for Sabo, our _brother_ , we'd leave him be. It was amazing how utterly idiotic people could be.

Bluejam went on to "ask" us to help him out with moving some cargo around after that. It was all to extremely specific points on a map and the cargo even _smelled_ funky, but I didn't take note of any of it, much too lost in my thoughts to notice, much less ask what it was we were carrying.

"…I hate it without Sabo here." Luffy mumbled out at one point when the sun was high in the sky and we were all sweaty and panting, each of us carrying two boxes of whatever-the-hell it was.

"Suck it up! I hate it too!" Ace snapped at him before quickly losing his anger, "…But I don't know what's really best for him. Let's just see how it goes. He's strong! If he really hates it, he'll come back."

I looked at him, dumbfounded. He couldn't be serious. "Do you really believe that?"

Ace gave me a look. "Don't you?"

"Of course not!"

"You don't think he's strong?!"

"Ace, he left for _us_! Even if he's strong, even if he _hates_ it, he's not _going_ to come back!"

Some pirate yelled at us to stop bickering and get back to work, and Ace bit back whatever he was going to say, gave me a look I couldn't quite read, and continued on with what we had been doing.

The task continued the rest of the day, and it wasn't until late that we finally got back to the treehouse.

It felt oddly empty, even though three of us were in there.

"I'm so tired…" Luffy moaned, collapsing onto the floor.

Ace sighed. "Let's get some sleep. We have to go back tomorrow and finish up."

I agreed and we all sank into our blankets. Thirty minutes passed, and there was shuffling and turning now and then and the ticking of our beaten clock, but no sounds of heavy breathing or snoring to indicate that anyone had fallen asleep.

The silence was interrupted by Luffy. "I wonder how Sabo's doing…" he murmured. I couldn't tell if it was to himself or Ace or I.

"Shut up and go to sleep, already." Ace muttered out. "Who knows? This may be what makes him happy…"

I sat up, not about let _that_ go. "Ace, stop it already! He _hates_ it there!"

He sat up, too; Luffy followed with wide eyes. "Shut up! How would you know?" Ace snapped.

"Because he said so himself!" I said incredulously, "You heard him say it!"

Ace jumped up, blanket slipping off his knees and falling to the floor. "Why wouldn't he be happy? He's got money and food and _everything_ he wants and people that want him, too!"

Some of my anger drained out of me at those last words. So this wasn't just about Sabo, it was also about… that. Him being the son of the last Pirate King— a fact I'd learned after Sabo let it slip to Luffy and I one day. I had no idea in hell how to approach that, though. "Ace," I said tentatively, "He doesn't care about just me and Luffy. He cares about you, too. A _lot_. That's why he gave up his freedom-"

Ace growled. "Are you joking!? He can get out- "

"Hold up, are _you_ joking?! I already _told_ you, he's not going to-"

"Why the hell _wouldn't_ he-"

"He cares too much-"

"Guys! Don't fight!" Luffy cut in, eyes darting wildly between the two of us as we wrangled, but neither of us heard him.

"Why would he care about _m_ -"

"Ace, _can_ it and _listen_ , why don't you! We _all_ care about you-!"

" _I said, SHUT UP!_ " Ace leapt at me and socked me hard in the jaw. Lost in a fit of rage, I threw a punch back and kicked him off of me. He snarled, and the two of us promptly became a tangle of kicking and punching limbs. I had never been a match for Ace; I was pummeled into the dust every time we sparred, and this time was hardly any different.

"Ace, Wren, _stop it_!" Luffy cried, running at us and latching onto Ace's arm, "Stop fighting! _Ace_ , you're really hurting him!"

Bad a fighter as he may have been compared to Ace or Sabo, there was no denying that Luffy was strong; he held back Ace's arm with all his might, and Ace couldn't budge it.

I was still fuming, but I scooted back and wiped a forearm under my nose; Ace had headbutted it and it was bleeding. My lip was busted, too. His fixed glare on me was almost venomous, but there was something else mixed in there— something dark that shrank away at my gaze and Luffy's touch.

"Don't fight!" Luffy repeated, voice wobbly, "I'll forget about Sabo, you two just don't fight!"

A deep guilt settled into me. "Luffy, don't forget him."

"But you guys keep fighting for real and hurting each other and I can't stand it!"

Ace's shoulders fell and his head bowed, face cast in shadows. "We won't fight anymore, Luffy."

"Promise?" Luffy asked seriously.

"Promise," Ace and I chorused. I felt so stupid. How could I have let my anger go to my head like that?

Daring a glance at Ace, our eyes met. His had lost most of that venom, but were still slowly burning. Shit, I hadn't meant any harm— I was just trying to help— but that spot I had hit was an extremely sore one for Ace. And for him to feel that someone he cared about got hurt because of _him_ …

"I'm sorry, Ace," I apologized.

Ace pursed his lips and turned away, not answering. "Let's go to sleep," he stiffly offered instead. "We lost enough sleep as it is."

Luffy quickly helped patch me up, and soon after that the three of us lay side by side again, only this time Luffy placed strategically in the middle. Upon laying down I realized how heavy my eyelids had gotten, and despite the storm in my mind, fell asleep almost immediately.

If the three of us had felt the previous day was shitty, we were wholly unprepared for what the next presented.

"What do you mean you're going to burn the dump?!" Ace demanded. We were back at Bluejam's hideout; the bastard had let the cat out of the bag and told us the details of exactly what that cargo's purpose had been.

"Keep your voice down, stupid. You don't want the people in the dump to hear you." Bluejam admonished.

"Why would you do such a thing?!" Ace pressed, ignoring him.

"Oh no! We have to let everyone know!" Luffy panicked, eyes widening, "He's a bad guy after all!"

"How didn't I realize…" I growled to myself, "Stupid…!"

Bluejam scoffed. "I told you to keep it down…"

The three of us promptly turned to try to leave.

"Hey, don't let them get away!" He snarled at his crew, who didn't hesitate to grab ahold of us, "...And I'm not the one behind all all this, anyway."

I didn't disbelieve him; what use would the burning of the Grey Terminal be of to someone like him? But I still couldn't fathom why he would do such a act. "What monster would want _this_?!"

Bluejam snorted. "So even troublemakers like you three have a limit, eh?" He said, completely ignoring my question. Man, I was getting sick of that. "But now that you know the plan… I can't let you go. Before the fire… There's just one thing I want to ask you…" He smirked darkly. "Where do you hide your treasure?"

Our jaws dropped, but to be honest by now I wasn't all too surprised. "Like hell we would ever tell you!" Ace snapped. "Let us go!"

"Now, now, you can't just deny me the treasure and then ask me to let you go," Bluejam frowned, "Well, it's not like it matters anymore, anyway." He then addressed his crew. "Tie them up. We can't have them getting away. They can burn here with the rest of the trash."

"Let us go!" We put up a fight as they brought out thick and hardy lengths of rope, but we couldn't really do much in the end; the three of us were secured tightly against a column and were rendered unable to move.

"Let's go light the fire, men." Bluejam and his crew left.

Minutes passed as we struggled to loosen the ropes in some way, but it was to no avail. "Damn it!" Ace growled. "How do we get out…?!"

"I smell smoke!" Luffy cried. He was right; the beginnings of the rotten smell was in the air. With our luck, the wind was probably blowing in our direction. I twisted my head desperately, trying to find some way to get out, but there was absolutely nothing. The room lacked anything of use to us-

"There's a shard of glass over there!" Ace suddenly exclaimed. "Luffy, can you reach that?"

"How?" Luffy asked, bewildered.

"Use your foot!" I supplied.

It took many, many attempts to get it, and by now the flames had spread to the hideout; the heat was rapidly surrounding us as Ace sawed tirelessly at the ropes. "Hot! It's so hot! We can't get away!" Luffy cried, flickering shadows playing with his expression.

I tried to soothe him, even though I was almost afraid out of my mind as well. "It's okay, Luffy! Don't fuss, we _will_ get away!" I promised.

Without warning, the ropes suddenly slackened and fell away.

"There! I cut it!" Ace exclaimed, then as he saw the fire around us cursed. "Damn it, we're in real trouble!"

"Through the window!" I yelled, "It's the only exit!"

The three of us dove towards the window, and I helped Luffy get through before trying to help Ace, but he pushed me over the sill before I could offer. Luffy was still crying and moaning about the heat, and I knew how he felt; it was a literal sea of flames outside of the hideout and escape seemed impossible.

"Crybabies get left behind!" Ace snarled at him, and I was going to chastise him for being too rough, but Luffy instantly sucked it up- though he still sniffled. Now wasn't the time to fight.

Navigation through the blaze was hopeless. The flames were taller than any of us, towering way over our heads, and if that wasn't enough, the smoke made made the air foggy and toxic to breathe in.

"I can't breathe! My eyes sting! It hurts! I mean, it doesn't hurt!" Luffy was coughing violently.

I held my hand out to him. "C'mon, just a little more."

Ace had on a dark expression. "I'll figure out something! Just follow me!" I hated leaving everything on his shoulders, but he knew the Grey Terminal best. His head turned sharply, having caught sight of something. "This way! Luffy, Wren, quickly!" I followed as he took off, pulling Luffy along beside me.

The clearing in the fire lasted a good minute or so.

' _ **BOOM!'**_

And then something exploded in front of us, and the path was blocked.

"Gah!" Ace leapt back, the flames almost grazing him.

"...Do you think the dump folks got away?!" Luffy wondered.

Ace was coughing worryingly. "There's no time to worry about anyone else! Damn it, I can hardly tell where we are!"

Abruptly, a menacing presence appeared behind us. " _Who said you brats could run away?!_ " A lamentably recognizable voice roared. Right, why the hell would _we_ get a break?

"Bluejam!" Luffy gasped as we all whipped around.

"What the hell are you assholes doing here?!" I demanded, "You're the ones who started the damn fire!"

"Shut up!" Bluejam roared, drawing closer, his ragged looking crew not far behind, "We're desperate!" Dread crept into my throat as he began to chuckle. "We're in an unexpected pinch," he admitted, "Humans are funny creatures; even in the depths of despair, they can laugh."

By the way Ace drew in a breath, I could tell he had arrived at the same conclusion as me. "Shit!" He hissed, "Luffy, Wren, let's go!"

I grabbed Luffy's arm and we all began to run, but Bluejam's underlings jumped in front of us and around us, preventing escape. Lumbering up to us, Bluejam smirked. "We worked hard together, so now we're going to together…!" He didn't flinch as there was a loud crack and a wooden beam fell beside him in a burst of embers; he chuckled, "You never told me where your treasure is hidden. We'll take it all before it burns up- now tell me where it is!"

"You can't be serious!" I gaped.

"We're about to die and all you care about is _treasure_?!" Ace's eyes were blown wide.

Bluejam just grinned. "So you'll tell me, won't you? If you don't go get it, it will all just go to waste."

He was half-right about that; most of it was stored near enough to the Grey Terminal that it did have the chance to burn, but the remainder would probably be safe deeper in the forest. Nevertheless, just the thought of him laying one hand on that treasure that everyone- especially Ace and Sabo- had worked so hard to collect made my blood boil. But was there a choice?

"Don't be stupid!" Luffy yelled as Ace didn't respond, "You and Sabo worked _hard_ -"

"All right, I'll tell you," Ace conceded grimly.

"Ace!" Luffy gasped, "You and Sabo spent _ages_ collecting that treasure!"

"Luffy. We have to," I muttered to him under my breath, "It's the only way out. I hate it too, but…"

"Sabo will understand," Ace said firmly, "Right now your- _our_ lives are more important."

Okay, there was _no_ way I hadn't caught _that_ slip of the tongue. He and I were going to have a _long_ chat as soon as we got out of this mess and got Sabo back- if I needed to get Sabo and Luffy to back me up, I sure as hell would, too. This had happened a few too many times already in the span of a couple days; his life mattered to us _too_ , damn it.

The moment Ace spilled the beans, Bluejam snapped his fingers and his underlings grabbed hold of us painfully tight.

"Gah! Let go!" I growled, but the guy was much stronger than me.

"What're you doing?! I just told you where it is!" Ace snarled.

"But you might be lying." Bluejam said, deadly calm, "So you'll have to come with us."

"Give us a break! If you do that, you won't be able to get away!" Ace retorted, " _So,_ you can go _without_ us!"

A gun was whipped out and pointed at Ace, the barrel inches from his forehead. I bit back a shout; I could not make this worse situation worse! But shit, how were we going to get out of this one?! "Don't make me angrier than I already am!" Bluejam roared, "I'm going to come back and have my revenge on these nobles, even if I have to use some kid's treasure to do it!"

Wait… The nobles? The nobles were responsible for this utter chaos? At this point, it was difficult to be surprised. But yet, I had thought at least one of them would give a shit. Obviously not. That in itself was probably another reason Sabo despised High Town.

"You brothers should do the same!" Bluejam continued, "They think everyone but themselves is trash!"

"Sabo doesn't think that!" Ace roared despite having a gun ready to blow his brains out.

"HE'S THE SAME AS THEM, YOU IDIOT! He just liked hanging around with you because it made him feel superior! What danger will a rich kid like that ever face? That was just some sort of noble's game! INSIDE, HE LOOKED DOWN ON YOU AND LAUGHED!"

I called bull; so did Ace. "DON'T SAY ANOTHER WORD ABOUT SABO!"

"Sabo just wanted to be _free!_ " Luffy bit down hard on his captor's forearm, and the man let out a yelp.

"You brat!" he hissed, drawing his sword.

The next few seconds flashed by; Luffy raised his lead pipe to block the incoming slash, but it passed right through and sliced the skin on his forehead deeply and messily, a spray of blood splattering his face and the ground. Ace and I screamed for him, and the man raised his sword again, swearing death.

Then-

"DON'T LAY A FINGER ON LUFFY!" Ace bellowed.

A literal wave of feelings washed over me, electric and possibly the most intense I had ever experienced, accompanied by the curious, cool chill of an egg cracking over my head. It took me a moment to realize, as Bluejam's men began to collapse around us, eyes rolled up and foaming at the mouth, that those weren't _my_ emotions.

There was a moment where the only noise came from the crackling and hissing of the flames around us, then Bluejam, the sole one who hadn't fainted out of his pirate crew, let out a howl and lunged at Ace. "WHAT HAVE YOU BRATS DONE?!" He kicked Ace over and planted a foot on his chest, drawing his sword so both his hands held weapons.

I didn't think; I snatched my pipe off the ground and dashed at Bluejam, slamming it with all I had into his jaw.

His head snapped to the right as the blow hit him straight on, and for a second it was as if the world held its breath; then he turned back, jaw bruised and trickling blood, spat out a tooth, and fixed me with the coldest glare I had ever received in my life.

"I'll deal with you _after_ ," he growled. He raised his gun, pulled the trigger, and pain exploded in my left shoulder.

Distantly, I was aware that Ace and Luffy were yelling and that I was falling backwards. My back hit the ground roughly, and I clutched at the new wound, fingers hardly stopping the blood that oozed through.

Head spinning and vision swimming, I couldn't move an inch when more voices made an appearance. Hands slid under me and scooped me up; I went completely rigid and began to struggle.

"Wren! Wren! Stop it, it's just us!" The voice sounded tinny to me and it was almost overpowered by the ringing in my ears, but I realized that it was one of the mountain bandits. Dadan and everyone else had arrived! I had never been more happy to see someone.

Dadan was squabbling with Ace about something, but I couldn't tell what. I tried my best to focus, but it was _hard_.

"Wren!" Ace called out to me without warning. I blinked repeatedly, trying to clear my vision, and then was met with the sight of him standing alongside Dadan, both facing Bluejam.

"Ace…?" What was he doing over there?

"Listen; I'm trusting you to watch over Luffy until I get back! So snap out of it and _go_!"

"What? Ace, you can't!" The mountain bandit jerked, and I realized that I was being carted away.

"Go!" Dadan ordered, "I'll make sure Ace comes back with me!"

And with that, the rest of the mountain bandits took off, Luffy screaming for Ace. I promptly passed out.

* * *

When I came to again, it was to a quiet sniffling and my entire body wreathed in bandages.

"...Wha-?" Everything came back to me in a flash.

"Shit! Ace! Luffy!" I jumped up and was met with a blinding pain as I jarred my left shoulder- the one Bluejam had shot.

"Ah! Wren!" Luffy's voice called from beside me as I wobbled like jello. I looked down; Luffy was laying on a futon, tightly tucked into a blanket and covered in bandages as I was. His eyes were wet; his straw hat sat beside him.

"Luffy! Are you okay?!" I fell to my knees to check on him, "Why're you crying?!"

Luffy sniffed again. "I-I'm so glad you're okay!" he blubbered, "But Wren, it's been a whole day and Ace still isn't back!"

"What?!" I ignored completely ignored them when Dogura, Magura, and the other bandits appeared, attracted by the ruckus, "He isn't?!"

"Wren, don't strain yourself! You're badly injured!" Magura told me, trying to push me back down to the futon. I let him and didn't protest as he tucked me in, either. It was pretty weird.

I waited until they'd cleared out again, then turned on my side to look at Luffy, who had begun to cry softly. "Hey, now," I told him, "He's okay. He's just taking a little longer than expected." My words sounded unsure to my own ears.

"But… I miss him! And Sabo's probably worried, too!"

"Ace'll be back," I told him a bit more firmly, "And you're right, Sabo probably _is_ worried, but he should be fine too as long as he doesn't do anything stupid."

When Luffy continued to cry, I scooted my futon a little closer to his and wrapped my good arm around him. He reached up with both of his and hugged it tightly. Ace had told me to watch over him, but… I sorely wished that both he and Sabo were back with us. Would it be bad if I went to look for Ace, at least? What if he was in real trouble? But I had to watch Luffy…

"I miss them…" Luffy moaned.

I steeled myself. Getting them back would be considered looking after him, right? Because he was hurting when they weren't there. "Luffy," I said under my breath so the bandits wouldn't hear, "Listen, don't cry, okay? I'll go look for Ace, so don't cry, please?"

The tears stopped abruptly. "But- But- I don't- Dogura said there are soldiers cleaning out the Grey Terminal right now!"

"Did he? Okay, then I'll go in a little while and wait until nightfall to start looking. Ace and Dadan aren't dumb; they know to hide, so they shouldn't get caught."

"If you're going I wanna go, too!" He protested.

I shook my head. "Luffy, you're hurt bad. Plus everyone would notice immediately if we're both gone. If it's just me and you make a distraction, I should be able to make it."

Luffy looked unsure, "Aren't you hurt?"

"I'm fine," I lied.

He nodded hesitantly. "Okay… But be careful!"

As promised, a little later, Luffy made a scene while I waited in our room. There was a lot of screaming coming from the other room and something about a "gas bomb from hell itself," so I was _kind_ of curious as to what he'd done, but figured I probably didn't want to know. I slipped out the window, pipe in hand, and began making my way back towards the Grey Terminal.

It took much longer than I would have liked to arrive; my bullet wound ached under the bandages and it felt like the forest was doing everything naturally possible to slow me down. I swear I wasn't normally clumsy, but I kept tripping over roots that just seemed to _appear out of flipping nowhere_ and almost choking to death on several occasions due to vines that had just _magically_ grown or something right at my neckline. I just put it down to having a shitty day.

But eventually I did reach the outskirts of my destination, and let me just say: the view was anything but pleasant. The once metaphorical valley of ashes was now _literally_ exactly that; gone were the mountains of rubble and scrap and in its place was just a grey dust that withered away with the wind. I smelled the last remains of embers in the air.

What Luffy had told me was right. Soldiers dressed in full-out hazmat suits littered the area, presumably "cleaning up," the universal term for "getting rid of the evidence."

"What a country…" I muttered to myself.

When night fell and the soldiers cleared out, their work for the day done, I began my search. I stumbled along, feet occasionally sinking deep into the mounds of ash, trying not to think of what they might have once been.

"Ace! Dadan!" I called. There was no response.

I swore as I tripped and barreled down one of the larger hills, landing in a heap at the base. Dear god, I was pathetic.

"Ugh…" I groaned as I raised my head, spitting out some dirt that had gotten in my mouth. Opening my eyes, I promptly froze. Why was there a pair of boots in front of me?

My eyes travelling slowly upwards, I took in the sight of a dark green cloak, long legs, a thick torso, broad shoulders, and…

"Gah!" I jerked back. The man before me had the most _intense_ gaze I had ever encountered.

"What are you doing here, boy?" The man asked, not letting up that stare whatsoever.

I peered at him. He seemed oddly familiar, with that weird-looking tattoo on the left side of his face. But it was better not to up and trust every stranger I met, especially, you know, where a massacre had just taken place. "What- what does it matter to you?!" I demanded.

His eyes narrowed as he looked at me, widening for a brief moment. "What are _you_ doing here? Why now, of all times?"

I blinked. "Uh… Sorry?"

The man was silent.

"I… Do I know you?" I asked him. I swear, I knew him from somewhere.

The man crouched down to my eye level. I scooted back a bit. "I see," He said simply. "You're not him- not now, at least. Why are you here, boy?"

"My name's Wren, not boy. Elias Wren," I frowned. "If I answer your question, will you tell me what you meant by 'you're not him'? Because that's kind of creepy."

He smirked, and I tried to conceal a shudder. "Perhaps."

Well, that was probably the best I was gonna get out of this guy. "I'm looking for my brother and our foster mother. They were out here the night of the fire. They're not stupid, I know they got away; I just need to find them."

"Hmm."

"Well?" I prompted.

"...I never promised to answer your question."

I frowned at him. He frowned back.

"...Prometheus." He said finally.

"Prometheus?" I repeated, the name sounding vaguely familiar in my mind. Suddenly, I remembered something. "Not the one from Ancient Greece?! The one that stole fire from the gods?!"

"I'm uncertain as to that," the man admitted, "I have never heard of this "Ancient Greece" until now. Is it a country?"

"Yeah," I said, "It is. It was? It's just off of… It's… Uh…"

"I take it you have memory loss?"

"Yeah…" I said glumly. But at least I had remembered something, even if it was just the name of a… civilization? "But anyway, what does Prometheus have to do with anything?"

Once again, he didn't answer for a good, long moment. "Your voice… It reminds me something I once read."

My _voice_? Not again! "Okay, what's so weird about my voice?! Why does everyone keep saying that?!"

The man seemed almost amused. He opened his mouth to answer, and then-

" _AHHHHH!_ " There was a bloodcurdling scream from somewhere nearby, and I whipped around to look in its direction.

"What the heck?" I waited a minute, but no more sounds came; there was nothing but the slight breeze that had begun to pick up again. I hoped there wouldn't be another storm. Turning back, my jaw dropped.

The mysterious man had disappeared, gone with the wind, no trace of ever having been there.

* * *

 **Stormy Vixen: Thank you.**

 **AJPJweallluvJJ: Great!**

 **Wolf Riddle: Thank you for reviewing!**

 **Guest: Thank you.**

 **gabrielsangel23: Here it is! And you'll find out next chapter. Sorry about the cliffhanger.**

 **SNicole25: Funny, so can I!**

 **A/N:**

 **Well, here it is, folks. I really hate re-writing canon, so I only explained two scenes that are in canon in this chapter, and I added my own twist. And haha, sorry about the cliffhanger. Those suck, I know. But expect the next chapter either next Thursday (I think I'm gonna make that the usual day, as that's when I updated last, too) or if things go sour for me, Friday. Things have been really rocky for me this week and will continue that way for the next two weeks at least. I've got the End of Course tests (which account for 20% of my overall grade), Finals, AP Testing, and, of course, the SAT. May the gods have mercy on my soul.**

 **Anyway, until next time. *thumbs up***


	5. Hello I Can't Remember, I'm Amnesic

**Chapter 5- Hello, I Can't Remember, I'm Amnesic**

"How very freaking convenient," I muttered to myself, beginning to pick my way through the ash mounds once again. That was completely unfair; the moment I'd been distracted, that ass used the chance to leave.

Who the heck was Prometheus? Why the heck did my voice apparently sound so weird, and why my voice of all things?

With a frustrated sigh, I shoved the questions to the back of my mind. It was probably better to take everything he'd said with a grain of salt, anyway. And I had something important to be doing.

I heaved myself over the ash pile from which that last scream had come behind- I wanted to know the source. It hadn't sounded remotely like Ace or Dadan at least, but it was possible that they would be somewhere nearby.

The pale light of the half-moon made everything glisten eerily as I crawled carefully back down the hill, not wanting another experience rolling down. Unfortunately, some ash blew up my nose and I couldn't stop it when I sneezed violently, lost my footing, and tumbled down the slope anyway.

I was lucky there didn't seem to be anyone around this time. Hastily, I stood up, dusted off my shorts, and retrieved my pipe from where it had fallen a few feet away. Something flashed in the corner of my eyes as I stood back up; marching over, I picked up a short, glossy tube, completely unblemished of any burn marks or anything of the sort. Obviously, it had been dropped here after the fire had died and the ashes cooled.

"What's this…?" I wondered, fiddling with it. Upon closer inspection, the tube appeared to have a cap. It opened with a 'pop'.

I blinked. "...Lipstick." I stated. "Bright, purple lipstick. _What the hell._ "

Seriously, who brought lipstick to a place like this? Maybe the person who had screamed had dropped it? Shrugging to myself, I slid the top back on and pocketed it. If I met them, I would return it.

I winced as my shoulder flared and my wound began to itch. "Okay, I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying…" I muttered to myself, resuming my trek.

"Ace! Dadan!" I called in a half-whisper. It felt wrong to disturb the unearthly silence that had settled in the area. My voice, nevertheless, echoed back, and I frowned. Maybe they weren't around? I shook my head. No; they had to be. "Aaaace! Dadaaaan!"

The Grey Terminal- or what remained of it- was by no means a small place. The remainder of the night, I continued to search for my brother and foster-mother, but never once found any trace of either. At the break of dawn, I had to submit to my exhaustion; I found a small, sheltered grove next to the bay, where it wasn't quite so silent and I could hear the soft sounds of the waves sloshing up the beach. As I settled down, I felt guilty for not getting back to Luffy. But I had promised I'd look for Ace and Dadan, and I definitely wouldn't be able to make it back to the hut in the state I was in, eyelids falling without me wanting them to and shoulder burning like nobody's business. Sighing, I resigned myself to the clutches of sleep.

* * *

I was _not_ happy when I woke up.

"WOO! WHAT A BEAUTIFUL SHIP!"

"YAY! SAINT JALMACK-SAMA!"

Glowering, I sat up, clutching at my shoulder. "What in the world…" I groused. Just a few hundred yards away near the docks was a gathering of mass of people, all exuberantly cheering about something that had rudely interrupted my sleep of- I glanced at the sun- about _four_ hours. That was not okay.

I used my pipe to help stand myself up; my limbs were all weak from sleep, and my shoulder had become irritatingly sore. Cursing as I fought my way through the branches of a bush that had mysteriously appeared in my way, I stumbled out onto the beach, barely managing to halt myself from falling over.

"A FISHING BOAT?! AND THERE'S A CHILD ON IT?!" Someone screamed, and I whipped my head up to see something I hadn't noticed yet; out on the water, not too far from where I stood on the beach, was the most enormous ship I had ever witnessed in my entire existence, and I had seen some pretty damn large ones when on the Grand Line with Gramps. Even his ship paled in comparison; compared to its mass, the people that sailed on it were nothing but ants. On the full sails, there was an emblem that I recognized; five circles connected by a cross- it was the mark of the world government.

I almost didn't notice the miniature boat sailing nearby it. It looked like a toy next to the other. On it was a small figure, that despite the distance between us, I immediately recognized. There was no mistaking that top hat of his.

"Sabo?!" I exclaimed. If there was anyone I had been expecting to encounter today it had been Ace and Dadan, not _Sabo_. It's not like I wasn't happy to see him, but I was baffled as to what he could be doing on a fishing boat like that, sailing away.

Hold up. _Away_? Was he trying to run _away_?

My sour mood multiplied by at least ten. I felt like punching something.

The past couple days when we could have gone back to rescue Sabo, we hadn't done _anything._ I couldn't believe myself.

Sabo's boat was beginning to veer away from the world government ship and closer to the beach where I was, presumably to get out of the way of the immense wake it was creating. A black flag adorned with crossbones caught my sight, flapping in the wind atop his boat.

"Aw, shit." Not only was he leaving, but he was leaving as a pirate? Already, before seventeen?

I wondered what went so wrong that it had pushed him to a decision like this already. Maybe he had seen the fire?

Who was I kidding- who _hadn't_ seen it?

I watched it all with a bitter smile. Well, no matter his decision, it wouldn't change the promise we all made. We would all meet again someday. I began to turn away, intent on finding Ace and then breaking the news to him and Luffy, when a cold glint from the world government ship flashed in the corner of my eye. Turning back, I narrowed my eyes, trying to see what it was.

Then the end of it exploded with a 'BOOM' louder than the one I'd heard in the Grey Terminal, and half of Sabo's boat went up in a burst of flames and wood chips.

Out of my throat came a choked noise. " _Sabo!_ "

You know, looking back on moments like these, I definitely had a bit of a problem. Because whenever anyone that was important to me was in imminent or immediate danger, I kind of just charged ahead without thinking. Which wasn't very intelligent, per se, since my forte _was_ my intelligence. Luffy and Ace were the heavy hitters, not me.

So, I may or may not have discarded my pipe as I dove into the water and paddled like a madman to get to Sabo's ship, all without the slightest idea as to what help I could even provide. But I guess it was the thought that counted?

I felt more than saw the next explosion, and I _definitely_ felt when I had the misfortune of being in the blast zone of the shrapnel. Let's just say it wasn't the best feeling, especially when combined with the salt water that had seeped into my bullet wound, among other things.

I surfaced with a gasp. Where was Sabo?! The waves were rolling roughly, capped with white, and the floating remains of Sabo's ship were crackling and burning, pitch black smoke stark against the pale sky. I swallowed the lump in my throat. "Sabo!" I called, coughing when seawater found its way up my nose.

Something brushed up against me and I instinctively reached out to grab it. It was a wet fabric, it was… His hat.

Gritting my teeth, I shoved in under my arm and paddled around some more through the wreckage.

"Sabo!" I tried again, "Where _are_ you?!" He hadn't sunk, had he…?!

"...En…?" The noise was so quiet I almost missed it.

"Sabo?!" Desperately, I swam in the direction of the noise. Past the charred skeleton of the mast and the torn sail being swallowed by the sea was Sabo, clinging with everything he had left to a single plank of wood. He was bruised and bleeding, and through what remained of his clothing I could see blistering burns running up and down his left side; not even his face had been left untouched from it.

"Shit- let's get you out of here-" I said, panicked. I grasped him with one arm around the waist and grabbed onto the plank with the other.

"...En?" he repeated weakly. He was hardly conscious.

"I'll get you out, Sabo, don't worry." I said firmly. There must have been something in my voice, because at that, he went limp.

"CLEAR THE WRECKAGE!" The sudden shout made me twist my head sharply in its direction; approaching quickly were a pair of ships, much larger than Sabo's had been, but still much smaller than the World Government ship. Speaking of the World Government… I bared my teeth. There was going to be _hell_ to pay for this. But it was probably best not to think about it for the moment.

"HURRY, BEFORE THE SAINT JALMACK BECOMES MORE FURIOUS!" Someone on one of the ships shouted. I narrowed my eyes.

"They're probably not gonna help if they see us, are they…" I muttered to Sabo, beginning to kick away from everything,"'Clear the wreckage'; they're not gonna even check to see if anyone's alive…"

I gnawed on my cheek, assessing the distance between us and the ships as I swam, slowing to a stop when I realized they were going to get to us before we would manage to clear out. Well, shit.

I looked around for anything we could hide behind, but everything was still burning dangerously. There was no way I was risking that. I'd had enough with fire; I was certain that Sabo would have felt likewise, had he been awake.

"There's no fleeing or hiding," I grumbled, "Negotiations it is." When Sabo groaned, I glanced down at him. "Don't worry. I said I'd get you out, so I will."

When the ships neared in the next few seconds, I raised my voice enough that they would hear. "Ahoy!"

A man with a bushy moustache popped his head over the railing of the ship on the right. His eyes opened wide, and he promptly turned around and shouted at the top of his lungs, "OI, WE'VE GOT TWO LIVE ONES!"

Someone, presumably the one in charge, yelled something that I couldn't understand back, and the man turned around again. "That one: he's alive, right?" he pointed at Sabo.

"Of course he is," I said, "Would you-"

The man turned around again. "BOTH!"

A moment later, another man appeared, this one pudgy in appearance and sporting a silver monocle. Distastefully, I noted that he reminded me of Outlook III. His expression was stormy. "These are the ones that dared sail in Saint Jalmack's path?" He spat, "Such fools are nothing but trash. Good riddance."

I scowled at him, any hope I'd had rapidly deteriorating, "How could you say something like that?"

"Be quiet!" he snapped. "Do you know what you've done, getting in the way of a Celestial Dragon? You've ruined everything for this kingdom!"

I growled, "This kingdom was already ruined in the first place." Okay, wow, I really needed to put a check on what I said. It would probably only end up getting me in trouble, otherwise… But I wasn't about to hold my tongue just because this guy was a noble or something ridiculous like that.

He scoffed, and I froze when he pulled a gun. The safety came off with a 'click'.

The man with the moustache went to grab his arm, but stopped just before touching it. "Sir Hayman, they're just children!"

"Hey, hey, c'mon, there's no need-" I began, but Hay-whatever ignored me in favor of glaring at the man with the moustache.

"Sailor… Need I remind you of your position? _You_ are hardly better than they are. Commoners deserve what they get, regardless of age."

The sailor went tense- I took the chance to try and get away, as futile as I knew it was.

"Scum like you shouldn't be allowed to escape!" Hayman roared. There was another click, and I instinctively shielded Sabo as well as I could, and then, not for the first time that week, pain exploded in my shoulder. Except on this occasion, in the _opposite_ one.

"Ugh…" I gritted my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the ache of the new injury. What an absolute bastard!

"Sir Hayman, I beg of you, stop-!"

"Don't tell me what to do!" Hayman snapped. I felt like snapping his neck.

My world went white when another shot went off and a bullet lodged itself into my ribcage, hopefully not hitting anything too important. Good thing he obviously wasn't that great of a shot, otherwise we'd probably be in bigger trouble than we already were.

"Sir!"

"Shut up, will you, you incompetent fool!"

"But-"

"Bah, they're not worth my time, anyway; they'll die of their wounds soon regardless of what I do," Hayman growled, "Now clean it up! Shove it to what remains of the dump- that way it can be with the _rest_ of the trash where it _belongs_."

"...Of course."

Every inch of my body ached. I couldn't even muster the strength to raise my head as the ships brought a net between them and pushed us and the wreckage away; I was entirely focused on both not passing out and keeping us on the one stupid plank of wood. It was the only thing keeping us from drowning.

Hour after hour passed after that, and I clung on desperately to consciousness and my brother. But eventually, it was too much.

The sun was just brushing the horizon when my body gave out. I scrambled to keep a purchase on the wood, but neither my fingers nor arm complied and my shoulder was sending screams of protest to my fog-filled brain. I slipped into the water, Sabo falling along.

' _No…!'_

I reached up a hand towards the surface, grasping at Sabo's coat with the other. ' _Sabo can't die here…!'_

But we were getting deeper. And deeper.

I reached hopelessly higher, wishing desperately in the remaining tendrils of my consciousness for _some_ miracle…

And then just as quickly we had slid into the water, we were pulled out, an iron grip on my wrist wrenching us up.

I coughed and spluttered, but Sabo was eerily silent; I payed the stranger no mind as I clutched Sabo, vaguely aware of the fact that _he wasn't breathing_. I knew I couldn't do anything. I hated myself for it.

I looked up at the stranger and was met with the sight of none other than the man I had met the previous night in the remains of the dump. He was glowering- but not at us. "You…" I croaked, "Help him… please… he's my brother…"

The man's gaze lowered to me. There was a fire in his eyes that reminded me of Luffy for some reason.

"I'll do all that I can," he vowed.

I passed out.

* * *

The next time I woke, it was to the creaking and swaying of a ship. I became aware that I was covered in bandages and laying in a soft bed- a luxury that I hadn't had in nearly a year.

Oddly, I didn't hurt too much as I sat up. The pain felt numbed and distant, which was surprising considering how much pain I remembered being in. That wasn't the only surprising thing, though; as I sat, I found myself surrounded by dozens of people men and women alike dressed in a varying fashion, though it appeared to have the constant theme of… 'steampunk,' was it called? They all seemed to be keeping a respectful distance, at the very least. I think it's unneeded to be said that all in all, it was kind of _creepy_. I was trying my damndest not to flip out. Not until I knew where Sabo was, at least.

I cleared my throat. "Uh, sorry, can I ask where my brother...?" I trailed off as one of the people pointed somewhere to my left. Looking over, I realized that there was another bed right next to mine and Sabo was laying in it, snoring softly. "Ah…" I really needed to be a little more observant sometimes.

The sound of boots clicking on wood drew my attention, and I looked over to see that the man who had rescued Sabo and I approaching, flanked by both the largest and weirdest guys I'd ever seen in my life. One was very obviously a cross-dresser, with a huge face, a bright purple hairdo and shiny purple lipstick to go along- not to mention the fishnet stockings. The second held a glass of wine and had his hair split in the middle into two colors: orange and white. And the other… well, he was definitely no shorter than a two-story house, wore a jacket with paw prints on it, and if that wasn't strange enough already, held a bible in his gloved hands. If I stood up next to him, I don't think I'd even reach his kneecap. When the vague sensation of having seen them before made another reappearance, I brushed it off as usual.

"You're finally avake!" The cross-dresser exclaimed in a strong accent and perhaps a little too enthusiastically. "Ve vanded to ask you zome gueszions!"

Sabo groaned from the bed next to mine. I immediately- probably rudely, too- turned to him. "Sabo?" I scooted a bit closer; there wasn't too much of a gap between us, so I could see his eyelid flickering; the other eye was obscured by the bandages covering the left side of his face. He was probably gonna wake up.

On cue, his eye opened. He blinked once, twice, then let out a soft, "Huh?"

"Sabo, how are you feeling?" I asked right away.

He frowned and sat up, rubbing at his head. "Aching but okay, I guess…" Then he frowned, looking around the room. "...Where am I?"

"I dunno," I answered. "I was actually about to ask that. But they saved us, so we should thank them."

Sabo frowned again and looked in my direction. "Did they…?" He trailed off. A gnawing worry immediately made a home in my gut.

"Are you… _really_ okay?" I asked him hesitantly.

Sabo grimaced. "I can't… Do I know you? You keep talking to me so familiarly," my stomach dropped, "I can't remember anything…"

I slapped a hand to my face and groaned. "That's great. That's wonderful. That's exactly what we _didn't_ need. _Jeez_ , how am I gonna explain this one to Ace…?"

"I really-"

"It's not your fault," I stopped him, "It just kind of sucks, especially since now like half our family is amnesic…"

"You're my brother?" Sabo asked carefully. He seemed conflicted, and I suddenly realized that although he may not have remembered anything, his feelings about certain things had probably stayed- especially concerning family. I knew that mine did.

"Not by blood," I said quickly,"That family can go die in a ditch. They treated you terribly. It's kind of what led to this situation… Anyway, you, me- I'm Wren by the way- Ace, and Luffy are oath brothers."

"Oh." He looked relieved.

"Luffy?" muttered the man with the tattoo on his face.

I turned to look at him. "Huh? Do you know Luffy?"

"...You could say that," he replied mysteriously.

"Hov heartvarming, but how rude!" cried the cross-dresser, twirling about, "You combletely ignored me!"

"Oh, sorry about that," I replied, though I wasn't really feeling it.

"Vo are you? Drakon prought you here, put he's hardly zaid anything as uzual!" He demanded. So the tattooed man was Dragon? What an odd name. It suited him.

"The amnesic child is the son of nobles from Goa Kingdom," Dragon supplied unhelpfully.

Some woman from the back of the crowd decided to speak up. "Then we should take him back- the both of them. I'll look for their parents."

"Hang on, no way!" Sabo went rigid, "It's true that I don't remember much, but I know… I don't want to go back to that place! Please, anywhere but there!"

"Didn't you hear anything I just said?!" I exclaimed, "His _parents_ are the ones that caused this situation in the first place! Sabo hates it there- don't take us back to the Kingdom, please!"

The woman looked conflicted, "But it wouldn't be right to just take you away…"

"And it wouldn't be right to shoot cannonballs at a little sailboat for no reason whatsoever!" I snapped, "But it happened to Sabo, and it happened to me, and it was all _there_ in the Kingdom. Can't you please just drop us off at Foosha village? It's on the island, and we can get back to our real family from there; they're just at the top of the mountain."

"Can you? As inchured as you are? I'fe heard from zomeone," said the cross-dresser, side-eyeing Dragon, "Dat dere are tigers the zise of the ones in see Grand Line in dat chungle."

"Okay, _that's_ true," I conceded, having seen a tiger in the Grand Line from the safety of Garp's ship once, "But we can definitely make it! We make the trip between the Mt. Corvo and Foosha all the time."

"...But aren't there four of us during that time?" Sabo asked, _extremely_ contributing towards my case.

"Okay, that's _also_ true, but-"

"I have a proposition," said a soft voice. I looked up- _way_ up- to the guy holding the bible. Wow, based on his size, I would have _not_ guessed his voice would be so… mild?

"Vat is it, Kuma?"

"Due to current circumstances, it would be unwise to return to Goa Kingdom. It would also not be in our best interests to return two injured children, both of which are amnesic if I am not mistaken, to a place as unpredictable as Goa Kingdom."

"Hmm," Dragon said.

"I believe that if we were to bring the children with us, it would be extremely beneficial to both parties. They may rest, recover, then join the training program Hack leads with the other children, and we may have the time necessary to inquire about… certain things that may be valuable to our cause."

...That actually didn't sound all that bad. In fact, I had quite a few things that I wanted to " _inquire"_ about myself. Such as: who the heck were they? But... it wouldn't be fair to Luffy and Ace. ...But then it wouldn't be fair to Sabo, either; he obviously didn't want to go back.

I hadn't managed to find Ace or Dadan when out searching, but I _knew_ they were alright. Ace was Ace; there was just no way he would die in a place like that, and Dadan was pretty stubborn, too. So I knew Ace had to be with Luffy- meaning neither of them were alone at the moment, and they could look out for each other.

If I decided not to go along, I'd be able to get back to them (probably), but I had no idea if I'd be able to convince Sabo to come along. At the moment, he had no idea who I was, so he probably trusted me as much as the next guy… So if I left to Luffy and Ace, I'd essentially be leaving Sabo behind, and he'd have no one to watch _his_ back. And he could hardly watch out for himself right now.

I let out a long sigh. "How long are we talking about?"

"Until you both recover entirely, our questions are answered, we deem it safe enough to return you two to the island, and, in the best case scenario, your brother regains his memories. It is possible that it may take a few years," Kuma said quietly, "That is, if Dragon agrees to this."

"It all sounds fine," Dragon acknowledged.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Wren…" Sabo said weakly, "It's just right now I'm not sure of anything… I just know I don't wanna return to that place."

I gave him a faint smile. "I'm sure Ace and Luffy'll understand."

He blinked. "You're not going?" he asked, and I shook my head, "But… I'd have thought that you wanted to get back to them…"

"No," I told him, "I do, but I'm not gonna leave you on your own."

"Oh…"

"Dat zettles it den! Vhoo!" Cried the cross-dresser, twirling about some more.

"Settle down, please, Ivankov…" said Kuma.

"If that's the case, then we will continue on the course to Baltigo," Dragon ordered.

"Yes, sir!" chanted the crowd, dispersing and presumably returning to their jobs, whatever they were.

I turned back to Sabo. "You should get some rest," I told him, "You've been through a lot and you need to recover."

"So do you," he pointed out, "No offense, but you look like a living mummy."

I snorted. "Look who's talking, Mr. Pirate," Sabo laughed, "Seriously- sleep, please. I want you to get better as quickly as possible. Luffy and Ace are probably worried."

"About that…" He looked guilty again, "I already said it, but I'm sorry I can't remember… Maybe you could send them a letter and tell them what happened?"

"Yeah, I was thinking of doing that," I nodded, "I'd hate to leave them with no word."

"Good," Sabo collapsed backwards into the covers of his bed with a sigh, "Thanks, Wren."

Smiling, I reached over and patted him on the head. "No problemo."

He laughed again and turned over. Within a moment, he was snoring.

"Would you like a paper and pen?" Dragon's voice asked suddenly, sounding almost amused.

I looked back at him, eyebrows raised. "You're still here? I thought you would have left…"

Glancing around, I noticed that everyone had disappeared save for Ivankov, Kuma, and, of course, Dragon. Oh boy. Did they have 'important matters' to discuss? People always used that wording.

"If you don't mind-" Kuma began before Ivankov butted in. To his credit, his blank expression didn't change.

"Ve have important matters to discuss!"

"Sure, I guess," I shrugged.

"Follow us, if you would," Kuma said.

The three led me from the infirmary and through the ship into its bowels, where they opened the door to a thickly-walled room, of which inside held a long, clean table and twelve chairs around it. There were no windows to be seen, but bulletin boards with official-looking papers pinned on them took up the majority of the wall space, along with a large chalkboard and several maps.

"This is where meetings are most often held," Kuma explained, "No sound can penetrate the walls. It was specially made so the leaders of the Revolutionary army may meet in peace if needed or they so wish."

"Wait, whoa, you guys are revolutionaries?!" Okay, sure, looking at it now it was kind of obvious… They obviously weren't marines, and definitely weren't pirates. Merchants just didn't fit, and bounty hunters didn't usually group together. There were other possibilities of course, but none of them really fit, especially with the array of people I'd seen in the crowd earlier- and the three in front of me right now.

"Did ve not mention zat?" Ivankov asked.

"No!"

"Our mistake."

"It is not an issue, is it?" Kuma asked.

I shook my head. "No, it's not… Though if old man Garp were to hear of this, he'd probably have an aneurysm," I paused, "No, strike that, he'd probably beat the everloving heck out me and Sabo first."

"You do not mean 'Garp the Fist,' by any chance?" Kuma inquired.

I winced. "Please don't mention his fists…"

Dragon had a distant look on his face. "You should listen to the boy, Kuma."

"...I will keep it in mind."

Ivankov shut the door behind everyone when we entered the room, and then everyone sans Dragon took a seat around the table- he seemed to prefer standing.

"So… why here?" I asked, "Is not everyone on your ship trustworthy- sorry for the question."

"Caution is never unwelcome," Kuma answered simply, and I nodded.

"Your voice," Dragon said suddenly. My eyes snapped to him. "You asked about it before something else caught my attention."

"Right- that scream. Who was that, by the way?"

"Oh, zat was me," Ivankov shrugged, "Zere vas a spider. It was big and it jumped into my hair. Vat vas I supposed to do?"

I stared at him. Then I fished into my pocket and pulled out the tube of purple lipstick I had found and held it out to him. "...Is this yours?"

He brightened, accepting the item. "Ah, you found it! It's my vavorite shade!"

Dragon coughed.

"Right," I said, "My voice. I'd really like to know about that."

Turning around to face one of the maps of the room, Dragon crossed his arms. "Have you ever heard of haki?"

Something tickled at the back of my mind. "I'm not sure."

"Think of it as a unseeable force that is used to determine different things, and is made use of through the manifestation of willpower. The haki that exists is found most commonly in three forms, however, at the moment only one matters in this conversation."

Wow. That was probably the most I'd ever heard him talk before. But all of this sounded a little familiar to me. I was seriously getting irritated with how often that happened.

"Color of observation; it allows the user to sense the presence or aura of others, regardless of if they are concealed from view or much too far to see naturally. As a result, it has been discovered that everyone in the world has their own aura, or more commonly, 'voice.'"

He paused, waiting for me to absorb the information. "Oh… So the 'voice' everyone's been referring to hasn't been my speaking voice, but my aura?"

"That is correct," Kuma spoke up, "As you may have realized, yours is odd and extremely noticeable. That is why whenever you have encountered an observation user, they have made note of it."

"Alright, but why's it so weird compared to everyone else's?" I asked.

Dragon turned back around. "That is what we are attempting to determine. I have a theory, but as it is incomplete, I would prefer not to discuss it at the moment."

I frowned. "That's okay, I guess… But what about that Prometheus thing you mentioned?"

"Prometheus?" Ivankov gaped, "Drakon, you can't mean-"

"No." Dragon said curtly, "He just reminds me of him. However, it he were to be him… It could prove disastrous for _them_ ," He then turned to me, "Tell me, what do you know of your past?"

I frowned. "You know I don't remember much… The only thing I know is my name and that Gramps searched but he couldn't find any of my blood family members…"

"You are certain that's all?"

"Well… I was unconscious during it, so I don't remember it happening, but apparently I landed in Sabaody Archipelago along with a bunch of sunflowers and dirt. I woke up on Gramps' ship."

"Sunflowers?"

"That's what I said."

Dragon's eyebrow rose. "Do you have one in your possession?"

"I do, but, uh, it's back in the treehouse. That's where Sabo, Ace, Luffy, and I were living..." A thought occurred to me. "Those two had better water that damn thing..." I muttered. But thinking about it some more, Gramps had said sunflowers. Plural. I wondered what had happened to the rest.

Ivankov side-eyed Kuma, then Dragon, and then sighed, shoulders drooping. "All right, I vill ask. Is zere anything odd in particular about zat flower? Is it a special flower?"

I stared at him. "...Disregarding the oddness of the question, yes, I think it's a bit weird. I... May or may not have gotten irrationally angry at it one time and pulled out a few petals, but they just grew back after a bit... And it's been nearly a year and it hasn't so much as withered as far as I've seen. Though I guess I have been taking care of it," I added as an afterthought. I definitely wasn't going to admit it out loud, but even though I cursed the stupid thing I kind of liked it. It provided a good topic for me to ponder over and occasionally rant about. _But_ it was only a _little_.

"Hmm." Was all Dragon said.

"Dragon..." Kuma began, "Prometheus. I take it you are referring to the ones in the legends, correct?"

"Yes. But as I said, I would prefer it not to be discussed, as I would like to refrain from finding a conclusion to something there is not enough evidence for."  
"Of course."

Dragon turned where he stood, towards the door. "Child, that sunflower... We will not be going back for it at the moment as it is too dangerous, but if my theory is right you should keep it safe as soon as it is in your possession once more. Your brothers will take care of it for you until then." And then, without another word and the swish of his cloak through the doorway, he was gone.

"He prefers not to admit it, but he's flashy at times," Kuma supplied.

"Zat Drakon," Ivankov raged, "Ve veren't finished talking! He's alvays doing zis, leaving meetings, hanging up ze den den mushi..." He fell into a heated mutter, he himself getting up and disappearing out the door after Dragon.

"Uh..." I said intelligently.

"I suppose that leaves me to guide you back. If you do not mind?" Kuma rose from his chair and opened the door wider.  
"Thanks," I went out and followed him back to the infirmary, where Sabo was still sleeping. Before I could walk off to him, though, Kuma stopped me.

"Here." He held out a few sheets of paper and a pen. "I am assuming that you would like to compose a letter to your siblings now?"

I grinned at him, accepting the offer. "Thanks, I can't believe I actually almost forgot."

Kuma nodded and made his way out, leaving me alone in the room save for Sabo- who was still asleep- and a nurse, who nodded politely in my direction from where she sat in the corner of the room. There seemed to be several desks. I found the one closest where Sabo was and promptly began to scribble down what needed to be said.

 _Ace, Luffy,_

 _Are you two alright? Ace, you didn't get too injured, did you? I'm worried, but I know that you'll be okay. You always are- the both of you. So I have some news to break to you. I don't know what you saw, or if you saw it at all, but… Sabo's hurt. He couldn't take it anymore, those nobles, and he set out to sea on a boat. It didn't end well. I tried to help, I honestly did, but I just got hurt, too… Honestly, nobles are assholes. It was a good thing that someone was there to help us, so we're okay now, please don't worry too much, but Ace, Luffy, it seems that Sabo hit his head pretty badly and he's lost his memories. He can't recall anything- he didn't even know who I was when he first woke up. But fortunately, or unfortunately… He was left with the strong feeling of not wanting to go back. So… We're going to be with these people that helped us for a while. I'm not sure for how long, but we'll definitely be back. Count on it. But until then, Ace, take care of Luffy, alright? Be patient with him, I know he can be a handful, but he genuinely cares, and he's our little brother. You're only one year older than me, but you're really tough! I know you can handle it. And Luffy, you take care of Ace too, you hear me? Look out for each other. Don't get in stupid fights. We'll be back. And believe me, when we return… Well, we'll just leave that for that day, don't you think?_

 _Take care,_

 _Wren_

 _P.S. I'd really appreciate if you took care of the sunflower while I'm gone. I've been told it's important._

I sighed and folded up the letter, sliding it into an envelope and then carefully writing Mt. Corovo's address on the front.

"I'll take that up for you, if you'd like," the nurse I'd seen earlier offered with a smile, "The coos usually arrive sometime around midday, and it's a few hours until then."

"Wow, thank you…?"

"Kat."

"Thank you, Miss Kat. I appreciate it." I handed the letter over to her, and then headed over to Sabo, her giggling behind me about 'politeness' or something.

Sabo, from the looks of it, continued to snore, limbs splayed out in all directions and the sheets a tangled mess around him. Shaking my head, I grinned. Even if he couldn't remember anything, it seemed he definitely still had the same habits. I jumped when he suddenly stopped snoring and shot up.

"Whoozzat?" He said groggily, uncovered eye not even fully open. "Oh, Wren…" And with that, he promptly fell back and was snoring again within a second.

I rolled my eyes and patted his shoulder. "This is going to be a long few years, I can tell it already."

* * *

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 **A/N: I apologize for the long wait. The last month of school was much rougher than originally anticipated- but hey, junior year is over, and now it's summer, and I've only got summer programs and keeping in decent shape to worry about. (read: not pigging out on ice cream at midnight) Anyway, the flow of chapters will begin to become somewhat more frequent. Hopefully. And hey, are any of you out there beta readers? I'm kind of in desperate need of one right now- someone to maybe bounce ideas off of and check for any grammar mistakes I may have missed. Anyway, thanks for reading, and look out for next chapter!**

 **** By the way, just a heads up, there is a timeskip approaching. The time for... more pirate-y adventures is nearing quickly. I'll try to skip over boring stuff. Also, I definitely do not apologize for what is the chapter title.****


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